Next Tuesday
by SciFiDVM
Summary: A sequel to my last fic, A Typical Tuesday. Now that Eyal is working at the DPD, he and Annie have to deal with changes in their professional and personal relationships.
1. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

**Title: **Next Tuesday

**Show: **Covert Affairs

**Summary: **Sequel to A Typical Tuesday. Now that Eyal is working for the DPD, he and Annie deal with the changes in their professional and personal relationships.

**Spoilers:** Everything through episode 3.14 – Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)

**Pairings:** Annie/Eyal (eventually), Annie/Auggie friendship

**Rating:** T

**Disclaimer:** blah blah… don't own anything… blah blah… don't make any money… blah

**A/N: **I never write sequels, but yesterday while I was driving into the hospital to check on a patient at 1am the bunnies attacked and would not be denied. This is going to be multi-chapter and I've already got at least 5 story chapters planned out. And btw… last night's episode… one word – SQUEE!

Once again as in olden days,  
Happy golden days of yore.  
Faithful friends who are dear to us  
Will be near to us once more.  
Someday soon we all will be together  
If the Fates allow  
Until then we'll have to muddle through somehow.  
So have yourself a merry little Christmas now

**Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas – Frank Sinatra**

Eyal's first few weeks at the CIA had consisted entirely of paperwork, briefings, and desk work. To everyone in the department, it appeared that he tolerated the informal probation and the typical office hazing exceptionally well. Annie, however, knew better. Eyal hadn't spent this much time behind a desk in the last decade, and no matter what he said, she knew it was killing him to not be in the field. She knew because she was feeling it too.

Being shackled to a desk-bound partner hadn't been bad at first, given the timing. It was the first time since joining the Agency that she got to spend the whole holiday season at home. It could only have been better if it hadn't also been the first Christmas that her family was thousands of miles away. They made the best of it though, and through the wonders of Skype, she still got to see her nieces light up as they opened the presents she had sent them. Annie had set up a small fake tree in the corner of her living room, mainly so that the girls could see that Aunt Annie was having just as merry of a Christmas as they were. After all the presents were opened and the girls had darted off to play with their new haul of toys, Danielle and Annie took a few minutes to catch up. Things with Michael were going well, and marriage counseling really seemed to be helping. Chloe had her first crush on a boy in her class and Katia had made straight A's on her first report card from the new school. Annie promised to come visit soon when things settled at work. Maybe she could take the girls to Disneyland over their spring break. It was then that Danielle caught sight of a small package still neatly wrapped under the tree behind Annie.

"Are you going to tell me who that extra present is for? The fact that you haven't already makes me assume it's something scandalous." Danielle joked with her sister.

"It's nothing." Annie attempted to deflect just a little too abruptly.

"It's for a man isn't it?" Danielle interrogated.

Annie realized that she was never very good at lying to her sister. "Yes. But not the way you think."

"I don't know. Exchanging Christmas presents seems pretty serious."

"He's not a boyfriend. He's my new partner at work. He's new to town and he gave up a lot to take this job. I just wanted to do something nice for him. And he's Jewish, so it's not really even a Christmas present."

"I'm not sure I buy it." Danielle contemplated. "I still think he sounds like a boyfriend."

As Annie rolled her eyes at her sister a familiar accented male voice spoke from inches behind her ear, "What's this about a boyfriend?"

Annie nearly leapt a foot in the air. "Damnit Eyal!" She spun on him. "How did you get in here?"

He held up a basic lock pick. "You really should get a better security system."

"And you should learn to knock like a normal person."

"Normal is over-rated." He grinned at her, his face still only inches from hers.

Then Danielle's voice emanated from the laptop on the coffee table. "I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that this is the new…_ partner_?"

Eyal butted in front of the webcam and smiled charmingly. "And you must be Annie's sister, Danielle. It is a pleasure to finally meet you. Annie has spoken about you often. The family resemblance is striking, both of you are such beautiful women."

Danielle blushed and absent mindedly tucked a lock of hair back behind her ear. "And why is this the first I'm hearing about you…"

Annie shoved Eyal aside and commandeered the focus of the webcam. "Because he's not going to be my partner for long at this rate." A glare at said partner accompanied the statement.

"Oh I don't know Annie. I think you should keep this one around." She raised her eyebrows suggestively."

Annie could feel the redness creeping across her face. "Good bye Danielle." She said firmly to the computer as she flipped the laptop closed, ending the embarrassing conversation.

"I think she liked me." Eyal smiled triumphantly.

She was not about to dignify his comment with a response. "What are you doing here Eyal?"

"It's Christmas, and since Auggie's off visiting his family, and it's the first time your family isn't here with you, I imagined that you wouldn't want to spend the holiday alone."

"That's…" her anger at his intrusion deflated somewhat, "…actually kind of sweet." She smiled at him genuinely.

"And I wanted to give you this." He produced a small flat rectangular box from his back pocket and held it out to her with a smile.

She looked at him skeptically as she took it from him and cautiously opened it. Inside was a beautiful antiqued silver chain. "It's lovely." She whispered as she ran her fingers along the length of intricate interlocking links.

"I figured that if you were going to continue to wear that key Fischer's sister gave you when we're out in the field, you should have something a bit sturdier to keep it on." The soft smile on his lips was sincere and without a trace of judgment. "I noticed you having trouble with the clasp the other day." He added somewhat bashfully.

She threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly. "It's perfect."

He returned the embrace. "Come on, this is me we're talking about. Like you expected anything less?"

She laughed and pulled back from him. She quickly turned her back to him and pulled her hair to one side. Without having to say what she wanted, he gently reached up and unclasped the old chain fastened around her neck, lifted the necklace forward and dangled it in front of her. She took it from him, slid the old chain out of the key, and replaced it with the new one. Eyal then took the ends from her and carefully refastened it behind her neck. Her fingers instantly went to it and gently slid along the metal. He rested his hands on her shoulders briefly, "Let's see how it looks."

She turned and faced him. She was so transfixed by the simple elegance of the material that she didn't realize that he was staring at her face instead of the necklace when he added, "Beautiful."

It was only then that she looked up and met his eyes. "Thank you Eyal."

"Merry Christmas Annie."

"Oh, that reminds me." She broke their stare to dash over towards the Christmas tree in the corner and grab the small box still wrapped underneath it. "I know we missed Hanukkah, but I figured better late than never." She held the simply wrapped package out to him.

He carefully dissected the wrappings and lifted the lid off of the box. His eyes widened at the contents.

"I hope you like it. I mean, what do you get the spy that has everything?" She smiled as he lifted the Sig Sauer 228 9mm from the box and examined it.

He silently and deftly handled the pistol with the ease and familiarity that other men breathe. He checked the clip and the chamber first before taking the grip in his hand and evaluating the weight and balance of the piece. He lined up the sights and the tried out the laser guided sight before spinning it 90 degrees on his trigger finger and returning it to the box. "This is a magnificent weapon." He looked back and forth from the box to her face. "But it's too much." He attempted to push the box back towards her.

She held up her hands and took a step back. "Oh no. You're keeping it." She smiled at him. "If it makes you feel better, you can consider that my motives might not have been entirely altruistic. I know you were just cleared to carry at work. If you're going to have my back in the field, it might as well be with the best possible backup."

He gently sat the box down on the counter, closed the space between them, and pulled her into his arms. "Neshema, you never stop amazing me."

"I know." She smiled against his chest.

He waited just a little longer than he should have before dropping his arms and stepping back from the embrace. His eyes strayed to his new gun sitting on the counter. When he looked back at Annie, the only way she could describe his facial expression was that it looked like, well… a kid on Christmas day. "Do you think there are any shooting ranges open today?"

She shrugged. "This is America… more than likely."

After calling around for a bit they finally found an indoor range that was open. They spent most of the afternoon playing with his new toy. He finally convinced her to make one round a friendly competition by volunteering to be blindfolded. Annie was no poor marksman herself, but even blindfolded at 15 yards he still emptied the entire clip into a 3 inch spread center mass in under 8 seconds. They called it a tie.

Afterwards, they picked up some Chinese take-out and went back to her place, where they spent the evening huddled together on the couch watching A Christmas Story, eating sweet and sour chicken, and drinking some egg nog that Eyal had insisted on making from scratch. Annie had learned long ago to never turn down anything he offered to cook, and the thick, spiced, rum-laden concoction proved to be no exception.

She sat with her head resting groggily against his shoulder and her left hand absent-mindedly playing with the chain around her neck as the movie ended and one of the traditional clay-mation children's movies began. She couldn't help but muse that it was only a week ago when she had been forced to accept that she would never see the man sitting next to her again. Instead he had risen from the proverbial ashes and ingrained himself even deeper into her life. She had always enjoyed working with him in the past when their paths would occasionally cross, but she had worried that the flirtations and innuendo that defined their personal and working relationship from before would become less exhilarating and more annoying with constant exposure. It had only been a week so far, but Annie had been pleasantly surprised to find that they were getting along better than ever. The combination of deep thoughts and warm liquor soon found Annie unable to stifle a yawn.

"I think that's my cue to leave." Eyal looked over at her and noticed her drooping eyelids.

"I'm fine. You don't have to." She had enjoyed his company throughout the day and she wasn't sure that she was ready for the comfort of their easy companionship to end quite yet. It was only eight o'clock.

"We have work tomorrow."

Annie watched as a light dusting of snow had started to fall outside her window. The sight suddenly made her feel chilled. She pulled the throw that had been over her legs up slightly higher and snuggled more deeply into Eyal's side. "But it's snowing outside and you're warm."

He wasn't sure quite how much of what she was saying was coming from her, and how much was coming from the nog. The day had gone better than he had ever imagined, and he didn't want to do something stupid now and ruin it all. That meant leaving soon, because the way she was snuggling against him was having a very detrimental effect on what little self-restraint he still possessed. "And I promise to be just as warm when I see you at work tomorrow in…" He checked his watch, "…less than twelve hours." Her only response was to pout at him, so he added, "You do remember work don't you? It's the place with the polygraphs and all the people that still aren't entirely convinced I'm not trying to exploit you."

"Fine." She somehow managed to both pout and smile at him simultaneously as she stood up.

They both made their way towards her front door and he stopped and collected his things. He clipped the new gun in its holster to his belt and pulled his leather jacket on. "Merry Christmas Neshema." He hugged her sweetly one more time and chastely kissed the top of her head, then he ducked out the door.

Annie ran the necklace through her fingers again and smiled to herself as she turned off the lights in the apartment and got into bed.

**A/N: Next time on Covert Affairs: Next Tuesday – It's New Year's Eve and Annie's plans fall through on short notice. Who can she call on to help her ring in the New Year? :)**


	2. Auld Lang Syne

**Title: **Next Tuesday

**Show: **Covert Affairs

**Summary: **Sequel to A Typical Tuesday. Now that Eyal is working for the DPD, he and Annie deal with the changes in their professional and personal relationships.

**Spoilers:** Everything through episode 3.14 – Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)

**Pairings:** Annie/Eyal (eventually), Annie/Auggie friendship

**Rating:** T

**Disclaimer:** blah blah… don't own anything… blah blah… don't make any money… blah

**A/N: **Sorry if there was any confusion – this will be a single long multi-chapter story. The chapters will play out kinda like episodes of the show – some will have their own little arch and tie up fairly nicely like a one-shot while some will be more of the cliff hanger variety. They are all meant to read in order as a single continuum of Annie and Eyal's new relationship as partners. Makes sense? Moving on…

Should old acquaintance be forgot

And never brought to mind?

Should old acquaintance be forgot

And auld lang syne?

**Auld Lang Syne - Robert Burns**

"Hey Annie, I'm at O'Hare now, and they're saying there still won't be any flights until Tuesday afternoon. I'm sorry, but it looks like I'm not going to be able to make it tonight. I'll make it up to you, I promise."

"You had better." Annie spoke at the telephone receiver and reprimanded Auggie's voicemail message out loud. Ever since they had met, Annie and Auggie had always gone to the Kennedy Center's New Year's Eve Concert and Gala Event. It was their tradition. Though it looked like she would be going alone this year since a massive ice storm had unexpectedly ravaged the mid-west while Auggie was visiting his family in Illinois. The roads were beyond treacherous and all means of mass transit through the area had been shut down for 24 hours already. She knew that her friend was likely as disappointed as she was, since this year's concert even had a jazz theme and was going to feature Dizzy Gillespie.

She sighed and turned back to the stack of Russian newspapers on her desk. It was 12:30. Only 30 more minutes until the holiday eve induced half day at Langley was over and she could head home. She thought about trying to find someone else to go with her to the gala, but what were the chances that she could find someone that didn't already have plans and had a tux?

Just then, the sound of over-emphatic laughter drifted across the bull pen. A few stations away, Eyal was sitting on the corner of a desk surrounded by four different women all trying to giggle the loudest at whatever he had just said.

Annie rolled her eyes. It had started last week. It was like the scent of fresh meat had sent every female operative in Langley into some kind of desperate heat. Sure he could be charming, he had an accent, and looking at him didn't exactly make you want to burn out your retinas, but this was getting ridiculous. Her subconscious niggled at her, reminding her that there was a word for what she was feeling – jealousy. She quickly shoved that thought aside and tried to focus on the periodicals in front of her. She hadn't gotten through two lines of text when the cackling laughter became so loud she couldn't focus. She looked in their direction again to find that one of the women, Arthur's secretary, had produced a sprig of mistletoe and was holding it above her head. That did it.

"Hey partner." She grumbled loudly in his direction. "Can I speak to you for a minute?"

He quickly jumped off the desk and strode over towards her, the other women instantly forgotten.

Annie noticed them sneering in her direction and had to work to hide a victorious smile. "Do you think you could keep it down? Some of us are actually trying to work here."

"Lighten up a little Neshema. It's New Year's Eve." The scowl on her face let him know that that was not about to happen any time soon. "My new friends over there…" He turned around to wave at the other women, "…were just talking about things to do this evening to…"

Annie cut him off. "Seriously Eyal? You've been here less than two weeks and you've already got a harem!"

"Well this is quite the double standard." He smirked at her. "You've got your big date tonight and I can't even…"

"It's not a date!" She cut him off again. "And Auggie's stuck in Chicago, so I'm not even sure I'm still going." Her voice dropped a bit at the last statement.

All sarcasm had drained from his voice, "But I thought you were really looking forward to this?"

"Going alone tends to suck the fun out of it." Annie mumbled.

"You know that if you want me to go with you, you could have just asked." He smiled at her.

"You look like you already had plans for tonight." She said with a raised eyebrow.

He gave her a look that that implied she clearly knew better than that. "I'll pick you up at seven."

Annie felt bad. He had already had to rescue her from spending Christmas alone, now she was going to make him devote his New Years to her too. "No, really Eyal. It's ok. If you've got other plans, please don't let me keep you from them." She looked up at him and gently placed a hand on his chest.

He brought his hands up to the one she had on his chest and wrapped them around it. "I'll pick you up at seven." He said slightly more slowly and deliberately than the previous time.

"Alright, seven it is." She let the hint of a smile play at the corner of her mouth.

He pulled her hand up to his mouth and gently kissed the back of it. "It's a date." He grinned at her and quickly returned to his desk, which sat across from hers, and lifted up one of the newspapers to block her view of his face.

Her brain was still reeling from the sensation of his soft lips on her skin. After about a six second delay it decided to catch back up. "It's not a date." She reiterated her previous statement, sat, and lifted up her own newspaper. After a few seconds she slowly lowered the paper a few inches to peak over the top at her partner. He had just done exactly the same thing, and they couldn't help but both laugh a little.

"We're obviously not going to get anything done today." She conceded as she looked around the DPD office and found that they were the only ones left. "Let's get out of here."

"I thought you'd never ask." He smiled at her, walked around to her desk, and held out his arm.

She turned off her computer monitor, grabbed her purse, and accepted his arm. They walked out together and parted ways in the parking lot. As she started her car she found it hard to suppress the small measure of excitement she felt building up at the prospect of spending the evening with Eyal again. Then realization dawned on her. This wasn't any evening. It was New Year's Eve. There were certain things that happened at midnight on New Year's Eve. A ball would drop, balloons would be set free, Auld Lang Syne would play, and she would kiss the nearest man. She was going to be expected to kiss Eyal. A sudden terror engulfed her. What had she just agreed to? She tried to reason with herself in an attempt to calm her heart rate back down from the stratosphere. She had kissed Eyal before, on more than one occasion. It wouldn't be any different than that. Unfortunately, the logical part of her brain would not be so easily deceived. The previous incidents had all been carefully crafted and executed deceptions – trick Eyal into missing his target, confuse the Russian police looking for a single American girl in a train station. Tonight there would be no pretense, just her sharing a kiss with her… partner? Friend?

What did she really even consider Eyal anymore? She knew that some consideration on that topic was long over-due, so she let herself ponder the question as she drove home. Three years before he had been an anonymous contact and a potential threat from a competing agency. Now he was one of the small handful of people she trusted entirely. He saved her life more times than she could count. He had become such an integral part of her life that when she had received news of his supposed death just two weeks ago, she had been devastated beyond what she could even imagine. And that was before he had joined the CIA and become a constant fixture in her day-to-day life, both professionally and personally. Somehow, the little everyday things now seemed just as important as those huge milestones. It was how, on a daily basis, he would infuriate her and frustrate her, but then also make her smile, cheer her up, defend her, make her so proud of him, and constantly challenge her.

After much thought and fortunately minimal traffic, Annie reached her apartment. As she opened the door to her home and stepped inside, she subconsciously let her free hand play with the silver chain around her neck. The tactile cue let her brain begin to list all the things she felt towards her new partner – respect, trust, friendship, attraction, lo…

Annie froze in the middle of her living room before her brain could complete the last word. No. There was no way. She was NOT in love with Eyal Lavin. She couldn't be. She tried to list all the reasons she most certainly was not in love with him. He was her partner. It was still too soon after Simon. He was a great big charismatic flirt – it was his job. There were no legitimate signs that his feelings for her extended beyond their trust and friendship. Were there? Why did she suddenly want there to be feelings? Oh god.

"I'm in love with Eyal." Something about saying it out loud, even if it was just to her empty living room, made it suddenly real. Now it wasn't just real, it was terrifying. This was uncharted territory for her. The men she had fallen for in the past – Ben, Simon – had started out as flings that had just organically become something more. She had never fallen this hard before for someone that she wasn't sure reciprocated the feelings. And what if he doesn't feel the same or they try, but it doesn't work out? He wasn't just some attractive man she met in a foreign country, he was already a part of her life that she wasn't sure she could stand to lose. And speaking of men she couldn't lose, what about Auggie? He was her best friend, but there was something more there between them too. What would this do to them?

Just then her cell rang, breaking her panic spiral. She looked at the caller id and smiled. "Should have known." She commented out loud before answering it.

"Auggie, your timing is impeccable. I was just thinking about you."

"Glad to know I'm not as easily replaced as I was afraid of." His tone was his standard sarcastic, self-deprecation

"What are you talking about?" His jab just hit a little too close to home for her.

"I hear it didn't take you 10 minutes to find someone else to take my place for tonight." Despite the accusatory words, his tone was still all smiles.

"Where did you…"

"I just got off the phone with Eyal. He called to make sure I was ok with him pinch hitting for me tonight."

"And are you ok with it?" Annie asked worriedly.

"I'm glad that one of us will still get to see Dizzy tonight."

"But it's our tradition. It feels weird going with somebody else."

"I have no doubt that you'll make do somehow." His tone held just a little too much sarcasm that time.

"While you two were chatting it up like little girls, you didn't happen to read Eyal in on our standard protocol for avoiding the awkward midnight kiss thing did you?" She asked hopefully.

"No such luck Walker. Looks like you'll have to do your own dirty work."

"And I thought you were my friend."

"Maybe you should just talk to him about it." His suggestion was genuine.

"I guess." She mumbled noncommittally.

"I don't think you realize how few men out there would have made that phone call to me that he just did. For as much crap as you give him, I hope you see that he really is a stand-up guy."

"Wow. I'm just now beginning to comprehend the full extent of your new bromance." She teased.

"See you next year, Walker." And with that, the connection ended.

Annie couldn't be sure, but it had almost sounded like Auggie had just given her his blessing to go forward with Eyal. This was all too much. She needed to clear her head. It was still five hours until the source of her current unrest arrived to pick her up, so she decided to go for a run.

…..

When Annie returned to her apartment two and a half hours later, she had put ten miles between her and her problems and still had time to stop for a latte at the coffee shop on the corner. She felt better as she dropped her mp3 player and headphones on the counter. She checked the clock on the microwave and smiled, realizing she had more time left than she expected.

She poured a glass of wine and sank down into the hot water and soothing scents of the essential oil laden bath she had drawn in her claw-foot tub. She soaked for over an hour and drank two glasses of chenin blanc as she sorted out the emotions that had troubled her earlier. Yes, she had strong feelings for Eyal that extended well beyond the friend and partner line that she had been feeding everybody. But to say that she was head over heels in love with the man might have been a little overboard. And regardless of whatever the feelings actually were, she was not sure that she was ready to act on them. Uncertainty was a clear warning flag. She resigned herself to maintain their status quo until there came a time when all doubt was gone and there was no other option but to move forward. If that certainty never came, then that was a pretty clear sign too.

Annie felt good about her decision as she showered off and then wrapped herself in a warm terry-cloth robe. Then the preparations began. She decided to kill the bottle of wine from before while she dressed, as it had already been opened for 2 days and there was only about a glass left. She let her hair air dry as she applied a deep red nail polish to her toes and fingers and laid out her dress. She pulled her hair into an offset intentionally chaotic looking knot style bun just above and behind her right ear. She let a few tendrils slip from the knot and left them to frame her face. Then she began her makeup. She decided to go with a softer, more natural appearing eye shadow blend and then let it pop with bright red lipstick. She sprayed a fine mist of perfume into the air, then stepped through it on her way back into the bedroom. She fished her matching La Perla black thong and push up bra from her underwear drawer, discarded the robe, and began to dress. Her gown was an elegant Elie Saab piece of sheer black material with a metallic sheen that came to a high halter neckline, draped simply, and was secured at the waist with a thin silver belt. There was a less than subtle slit that extended nearly half way up her left thigh that she realized had seemed slightly less provocative when she had bought the dress, thinking that her date would never even see it. She started the zipper in the back, but could only get it about half way without having to dislocate her shoulder. A quick glance at the clock reminded her that she only had about fifteen minutes until her date arrived. At that thought she gulped down the remaining half glass of the wine. She secured her strappy metallic silver Louboutin heels and went back to the bathroom to check her makeup one last time. She was leaned over the bathroom counter, touching up her lipstick when she noticed motion behind her in the mirror.

She spun as Eyal lightly knocked on the door frame to her bathroom to get her attention.

"What are you doing here?" She yelled, startled.

"I told you I'd pick you up at seven."

"It's only 6:45. And I meant here in my bathroom?"

"I let myself in again." He gave her an impish lopsided grin, folded up his lock pick, and deposited it in his pocket deliberately.

"Well you're lucky. If you'd gotten here five minutes earlier I would have still been naked." She lectured as she brushed past him in the doorway.

"I actually consider my timing rather unlucky then." He raised an eyebrow at her.

She rolled her eyes as she rifled through her bag sitting on her dresser. She dropped in her lipstick, a few other essentials for makeup touch-ups, some cash, a credit card, her driver's license, and her cell phone. She zipped the clutch shut and was about to turn around, when she felt his hands at the small of her back. She froze as his hand slowly drifted up her spine. It took a second for the sound of the zipper to register.

"There." He sounded quite proud of himself.

"Thank you." She turned and really looked at him for the first time. He wore a classic black and white tuxedo that fit like it had been poured onto his body, and he was clean shaven with his hair gelled into place. And most alluring of all was the look in his eyes as he was giving her the same inspection.

"That was quite unnatural." He broke the silence but held her eye contact. "Typically if I'm in a bedroom with a woman this beautiful I'm taking her clothes off, not putting them on."

"Keep dreaming buddy." She smiled and started walking back to the living room. "And you better be careful. In that tux, someone's bound to mistake you for some kind of secret agent."

"You ready?" He asked her and held the dress coat she had hanging by the door out for her.

She slid her arms into it and responded, "As I'll ever be."

Downstairs a Town Car and driver waited for them. The party atmosphere had taken over the town and traffic was abysmal. They made it to the Kennedy Center just in time to slip into their balcony seats before the concert began. The music was fantastic, and Annie felt a pang of sadness that Auggie had to miss it. After the band was finished, the crowd poured out of the theater and into the Grand Foyer.

The open area was tastefully decorated and boasted a large dance floor, a small stage where a string quintet was playing, two separate bars, and a buffet of hors d'oeuvres and desserts, in addition to many seating areas. Annie snacked on some of the finger foods as Eyal went and got them each a flute of champagne. They met back at one of the tables and made small talk as they ate and drank. Annie watched the crowd and would occasionally remark on a dress or shoes other women were wearing that she envied. Eyal was a good sport for this CIA edition of Fashion Police, but didn't quite seem to understand the embarrassment she felt for the two beautiful women dressed in red and unfortunately carrying the same $850 red pleated Prada clutch. Then Annie noticed the elderly couple from the table next to theirs get up and walk to the dance floor. The pair had to be well into their eighties and nearly debilitated by age and arthritis, yet once the little old man had his wife in his arms on that dance floor they seemed to float as gracefully as the young men and women a third their age. Annie looked over to Eyal and realized that he had been watching them as well.

"Care to put all those dancing lessons from your childhood to good use?" She asked.

"Absolutely." He stood and extended his hand. She accepted it and they walked out onto the floor. He kept hold of her hand and held it at shoulder level between them as he positioned her against him. He wrapped his free arm around her waist as she put hers on his shoulder and leaned her head against it. They danced effortlessly through a few different songs and styles. He even twirled and dipped her at the end of the last song. She was all smiles as he pulled her back up to a standing position.

"All that practice sure seems to have paid off."

"My mother would be so proud to hear that." He smiled and took her back into his arms for another slow song.

His flippant comment made Annie consider something she hadn't thought of until now. "What did you do about your family back in Israel?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean Mossad believes you're dead. I assume they would notify next of kin. You have let your family know that you're still alive, right?"

He shrugged and suddenly seemed to find dancing less interesting. She followed him as he walked off the dance floor. He grabbed them each another glass of champagne from a passing server and led her up the stairs to a deserted balcony overlooking the dance floor. He silently leaned over the railing, taking large sips of the champagne, and watching the dancers below.

She asked the question again, "Your mother, your son, your niece… they know you're alive, right?"

"Telling them would jeopardize their safety and risk destroying my cover." He said in an emotionless voice, still looking out over the dance floor with his back to her.

Her heart broke for him. She couldn't imagine what it would be like to never see Danielle and her nieces again, to know the anguish they were experiencing thinking that she was dead. She closed the gap between them and wrapped her arms around his chest from behind. The contact seemed to startle him slightly, but he welcomed the embrace. He lifted his left arm and turned slightly, pulling her beside him. He let his arm remain draped over her shoulders.

She kept her arms around him and leaned against him as totally as she could. "I'm so sorry Eyal."

"There's nothing for you to feel sorry about. I have made my own choices, and for now these are the consequences I will have to live with. Maybe in time things will be different. For now I am just going to be thankful to be alive, employed, and spending the evening with a beautiful woman that I adore." He planted a brief kiss on the top of her head before he turned his attention back to the dancers.

Annie followed his gaze and found the little old couple still cutting a rug on the floor smiling and laughing. She looked up at the man in her arms and wondered if there was any world in which that could be them in fifty years.

He interrupted her thoughts by commenting, "Some of the people down there are quite good. That woman there," he motioned with a tip of his chin to one of the women in red with the duplicate hand bags from earlier, "has obviously had professional training."

"Ok Bruno." She quipped.

He gave her a look that said that he didn't get the reference.

"Bruno Tonioli? One of the judges on Dancing with the Stars?" He was still giving her only blank looks. "Never mind."

Just then the song ended and the host for the evening stepped up to the microphone on stage. "Attention everyone, the time is now 11:55 pm. The countdown will begin in five minutes."

A round of cheers followed the announcement and Annie and Eyal decided to make their way back downstairs.

They each grabbed another fresh glass of champagne to toast with once the clock struck twelve and walked together out onto the dance floor. They ended up standing near the old couple and Annie couldn't help but smile at them as the overhead display showed two minutes until the new year. That was when she noticed something peculiar just on the other side of the couple.

The woman in the red dress with the dancing skills was draped all over the man she had accompanied. It seemed like an odd pairing, as he was a good thirty years her senior and did not carry himself with the airs of a man that routinely attracted that kind of arm candy. She nudged Eyal to get his opinion on the couple, she was suspecting the woman was an escort, when she noticed the other woman with the same Prada clutch casually approaching her. They both watched as the first blonde haired woman stretched her arm around the man's shoulders, dangling the clutch behind him. The second dark haired woman walked past with her clutch held at shoulder level. Right in front of their eyes, Annie and Eyal saw them make the switch.

"Did you just see that?" He asked her.

"That wasn't a fashion faux paw. That was a brush pass!" She whispered emphatically to her partner.

"What should we do?" His eyes stayed trained on the dark haired woman walking away from the dance floor.

"Nothing." She answered. "We're not on duty and for all we know she's working for us."

Just then her phone vibrated in her clutch under her arm. She looked up at Eyal and they locked eyes in concern as she retrieved the phone and then saw "Joan cell" flash across the top of the display.

"Hello? Joan?"

"Annie, are you and Auggie still at the Kennedy Center?"

"I am, but Auggie couldn't make it. Eyal's here with me."

"I'm sorry to interrupt your night, but we just received a tip that a hand off of information between an Iranian intelligence handler and an asset that has been stealing classified nuclear guidance programming information is set to happen there tonight at midnight."

Annie looked up at the clock – 25 seconds to go. "You're about a minute off. We just saw it happen, but weren't sure who the players were."

"Annie, you can't let that package leave the building. We've got back-up on their way."

"Will do. I'll call you when I've got it." She dropped the purse back in her bag and looked at her partner. Just then the final ten seconds of countdown began and the entire crowd began chanting along. "Looks like we've got work to do."

"The dark haired one went into the restroom. You follow her, I'll watch the blonde." She smiled and he returned it. This was what they did best.

They stepped apart as the clock reached zero and a few thousand balloons dropped from the ceiling. Annie darted to the women's restroom and quickly looked around the small space as she locked the deadbolt on the door behind her back. The three stalls were unoccupied and only her target in the red dress stood in front of one of the sinks returning a cell phone to the bag. The woman looked up at her suspiciously.

"Phew!" Annie exclaimed as she walked towards her target. "This obnoxious guy with like, the worst breath ever, has been totally stalking me all night. I barely got out of there before the balloons dropped and he tried to stick his nasty ass tongue down my throat." The other woman seemed to relax. "Who are you hiding from?"

"No one. I'm just waiting for someone." She replied in a voice that nearly hid her accent as she peeked into the clutch at her cell phone again.

"Lucky you." Annie added. "Hey, you don't happen to have a tampon I could borrow, do you?" Annie attempted to look over the woman's shoulder and into her bag.

The woman lunged backwards and suddenly became overly suspicious again.

"Crap. That last bit was too much, wasn't it?" She looked the dark haired woman straight in the eyes then lunged for the bag. A struggle quickly ensued. Annie landed a solid blow to the woman's stomach before she saw the other woman reach down the front of her dress and produce a small pistol. Annie grabbed the arm before she could get it level to take a shot. She banged her hand repeatedly against the marble wall until her grip gave and the gun skittered across the floor and into one of the open stalls. Then her opponent used the wall for leverage and pushed off of it, sending Annie backwards and onto her backside. The Iranian attempted to dart past Annie, but she swept her legs around and caught the other woman's legs in a scissor hold and twisted. The woman's full weight came crashing down on Annie's left ankle, crushing it against the marble floor tiles. Annie knew that was going to hurt later, but all she could think about was keeping the other woman from getting to the gun. She grabbed at her shoulders, but couldn't keep her grip, so she finally resorted to grabbing a fist full of the dark hair and pulling her backwards. The woman landed on her back and her head hit the floor. The blow dazed her, giving Annie just enough time to straddle her and land enough blows to leave her unconscious. She reached over and grabbed the red clutch from the ground nearby and also collected the gun. She was just getting to her feet as the bathroom door burst open and Eyal crashed in with it, followed by Joan, a few other DPD members, and some law enforcement.

Annie attempted to straighten herself up as much as possible, opened the clutch and produced a flash drive. She took a step towards Joan to hand it to her, only to find that her left ankle gave out under her. Eyal caught her before she could hit the floor. Not only was it swollen to the size of a grapefruit and black and blue, but the heel on her shoe was broken too.

"Aww." She groaned. "These were new."

Joan stepped up and took the red purse and the flash drive from her.

Annie added, "She was waiting for a call on that phone. We might be able to use it to track her contacts."

"Good work Annie. Now go get that ankle checked out." Joan added before turning and leaving.

Eyal helped her out to the ambulance waiting outside. As she sat getting her ankle examined by the paramedic, she saw the dark haired woman and the blonde be led out in handcuffs and placed into dark colored, unmarked Crown Vics. It was determined that her ankle wasn't broken, just sprained and badly bruised. They gave her some pain meds and wrapped it, but didn't have any crutches in the ambulance. She had some at home, so she told them not to worry about it. Eyal had the car service pull up right next to the ambulance and took her home. Traffic was still terrible and it was nearly 3am by the time the car pulled up to her building.

She tried to insist that she could make it by herself, but she couldn't make it past the curb. Eyal put an arm under hers and around her back and supported most of her weight as she limped to the elevator and then to her apartment. Once inside, she led him to a hallway closet where she produced the pair of crutches she hadn't used in years. She shifted her weight off of her partner and onto the crutches before taking a step back and looking at him. He still looked picture perfect in his pristine tux, not a hair out of place. She, on the other hand, looked pathetic. Besides the crutches, her hair was a mess, her makeup was smeared, and her dress had seen better days.

That's why she was taken aback when he stepped towards her, put his hands on her cheeks and pulled her into a kiss. His lips rested gently on hers for a few seconds, allowing her mind to catch up with his sudden movements. Once he felt her join him in the moment, he parted his lips and their tongues met. It was a deep kiss, but his explorations of her mouth remained controlled and deliberate. She felt his restraint and found herself wishing he would let himself go. It was what she wanted to do, but wouldn't without him. Her hands went to his wrists, her grip an encouragement to continue. The kiss lasted until they were both so oxygen depleted that their lungs burned. When they finally broke apart for air they were both panting. Eyal quickly dropped his hands from her face and stepped back.

"We were a little busy at midnight." He said between gasping breaths that he was quickly regaining control over. "I figured better late than never."

She was still too shocked and out of breath to reply.

"Happy New Year, Neshema." He smiled at her, turned, and left the apartment without looking back.

For the second time that day, she stood alone in her living room, too shocked to move.

**A/N: Sorry this took so long. It just took on a life of its own and ended up three times as long as I intended… and in the midst of my week on call at work. **

**Next time on Covert Affairs: Next Tuesday – It's Annie and Eyal's first official mission together – to Cancun! The Hyatt Regency honeymoon suite, tequila, and a little white bikini feature prominently as Annie discovers the extents Eyal will go to for their friendship.**


	3. Lay Me Down

**A/N: Sorry for the delay. Last week I had a "catastrophic CPU failure" in my laptop. Epic fail. Then I had to spend all day Friday on a mission traveling across the country to rescue Eyal from a detention center where he was scheduled to be executed. Ok… I know that part sounds insane, but it's totally true… in a way. I drove to an animal shelter in Portland to adopt a very special dog that was scheduled to be euthanized at the end of the weekend if no one adopted him. I always name my pets after TV characters, and Eyal seemed to fit this guy perfectly. Also just found out that last Friday was Oded Fehr's birthday – how perfect is that! So now hopefully I'm back on track and should be publishing the next 3-4 chapters rather quickly.**

Well you're my green-eyed girl and I've been running 'round with you.  
It's the afternoon and we got nothing left to do.  
So wipe the dirt off, or take your shirt off.  
And we should go hit the cantina, we got work off.  
I said it's hot outside, let me go swimming in your eyes.  
We've been running for a while.  
Why don't you lay down and I'll make you smile.  
I could never ask for nothing better than this.  
It's just tequila and the beach, that's why it's salty when we kiss.

**Lay Me Down – Dirty Heads**

It was the second week in January when Annie and Eyal were sent on their first official CIA mission together. Based on their impromptu performance at the Kennedy Center on New Year's Eve, Joan had actually gotten Eyal cleared to go out in the field a week earlier, but the pair had remained benched while they waited for the swelling in Annie's sprained ankle to abate and remove her from the medical hold she had been placed on. At the end of the day it had all worked out quite well, because the scheduling landed them the best mission to come across Joan's desk in months.

The DC forecast was calling for sleet and highs in the low thirties all week. That's why Annie and Eyal didn't care that their mission was merely to rendezvous with an asset to take delivery of some documents proving the whereabouts of the financial holdings and hidden estates of a few Central American drug cartel leaders. It was a rookie assignment, but it was a rookie assignment that would have them spending most of the week in Cancun Mexico at the Hyatt Regency, where the sun was expected to shine and at night it would drop all the way down to a balmy 72 degrees.

They had gotten the assignment on Monday and were allowed to leave early to prepare for the trip. Annie had gone home and packed quickly, then she'd gone out for an evening run. When she returned, there was a small gift bag sitting on her kitchen counter. There was no card, but she didn't need one to know who had left it. Only one person had shown a consistent penchant for breaking into her apartment.

"Eyal, are you still here?" She called out. "If you're hanging around, hiding in the closet or something, this little B and E habit of yours is going to go from endearing to creepy really quick."

When she received no answer she picked up the bag and removed the contents – a very small, all white string bikini. "Very funny Eyal." She yelled out to the empty house, just in case, and returned the skimpy swimwear to the bag.

The run had felt great after a week on crutches and another week on limited activity. She was also pleased to see that her ankle had in fact survived the seven mile jog without any ill effects. As she was about to step into the shower, she realized that while the two weeks off had helped her ankle, it had also made her muscles a little more tense and sore from the activity. Instead she began to fill hot water into the bath tub. As the water level steadily rose, she added some Epsom salt and a few splashes of some aromatic bath oils. She also grabbed a glass of wine, because she didn't have anything else planned for the night. As she sank down into the soothing water, she reflected on the night that had followed the last time she had taken just such a bath. It wasn't even that night, as much as it was the last few minutes of it. That kiss. She smiled at the memory. Then her smile faded at the memory of his abrupt exit after the kiss. That night in bed she had tried to analyze the kiss and everything leading up to it. Was it just a standard New Year's kiss? Was it more? How did he really feel about her? How did she really feel about him? She ended up with a headache and no good answers. She had decided not to over analyze it. For now it was just a kiss. They hadn't spoken about it. At work they essentially pretended it had never happened.

She soaked and drank until her muscles no longer felt sore, then she showered off, made a quick dinner, and went to bed early.

…

The next morning Annie woke, dressed, and double checked that she had packed everything she would need and that she had grabbed all the correct travel documentation. She was bundled up for the nasty DC weather outside and could not have been more excited at the fact that nearly everything she had packed for this mission involved shorts and tank tops. As she walked towards the front door with her rolling carry on bag she saw the gift bag still sitting on the counter. She rolled her eyes at it and proceeded out the door.

The deadbolt latched as she locked the door from the outside. Everything in her apartment became still and quiet.

Then the deadbolt retracted, the door swung back open, and Annie rushed back into the apartment. She muttered "What the hell…" under her breath and grabbed the skimpy white bikini out of the bag and shoved it into her luggage before exiting and locking the door once again.

Twenty minutes later Annie was in the DPD standing next to her desk. Eyal was sitting on the corner of it, swinging his legs and fidgeting with anxious energy. Auggie hovered nearby.

Joan walked up and addressed the partners. "Remember, you will be posing as man and wife staying at the resort on a vacation. Your contact is Miguel Marquez. He will rendezvous with you to deliver the information at some time in the forty-eight hour window, depending on when he can get away from the plantation without arousing suspicion." Based on the semi-bored look they were both giving her, she continued, "I know this mission seems somewhat beneath your collective experience level, but the simple fact that you two are here together should serve as a reminder that even the most routine information exchange can become dangerously complicated." They both smiled bashfully at her last comment. "I also realize that it will be tempting to treat this assignment like a vacation. Remember that you are on a mission, but at the same time, remember to relax just enough to maintain your cover." She smiled at them.

"And speaking of your cover…" Auggie stepped up and produced a small box containing matching his and hers rings. "I now pronounce you Mr. and Mrs. Walker" He held out the rings and a new set of passports.

"Really? I took your name? How non-traditional of me." Eyal smiled as he accepted the documents and ring and inspected the passport.

"I'm pretty sure the fine folks at Mossad would have had a few questions if a Mr. and Mrs. Eyal Lavin went through customs, considering that you're supposed to be dead." She smiled back, grabbed the items Auggie was holding out, tucked the passport in her purse, slid the engagement ring and wedding band onto her left ring finger, and held them up for inspection. "You sure didn't go all out, did you honey?"

Eyal slid the wedding band onto his finger and groaned. "Already with the whining and the complaining, and we haven't been married for a whole minute yet."

"Isn't that cute." Auggie added, "They already sound like an old married couple."

"I fail to see any difference from usual." Joan added with an uncharacteristic smile and a shrug of her shoulder. She turned and walked back to her office before anyone else could comment.

Annie, Eyal, and Auggie just stood there, flabbergasted. Face still blank with shock, Annie was the first to speak. "She just made a joke."

"And at our expense, no less." Eyal added.

Then all three started laughing uproariously. It took a solid minute for them to calm down. Then Auggie checked his watch and commanded, "You two have a plane to catch."

Eyal hopped down off of the desk, gathered his bag, and clapped Auggie on the shoulder. "Too bad you can't come too, my friend. I'll think of you while we're sitting on the beach drinking margaritas." Then he took Annie's arm and they started for the door.

Auggie knew full well that Eyal was not upset in the slightest that he was getting to go spend the rest of the week in a tropical paradise alone with Annie while Auggie was stuck in a DC blizzard. He yelled after them, "Yeah _friend_, be careful out there. It'd be a real shame if you got a sunburn… or sand fleas…"

Eyal turned and both men smiled at each other. Despite their poorly hidden affections for the same co-worker, they were actually starting to become real friends.

…

Annie and Eyal took their seats on the cramped airplane. She took the window seat and let him have the aisle so that he could have some hope of spending at least part of the trip without his long legs being so compressed that he kneed himself in the chin.

"New agency, same crappy airline accommodations." He mused.

"Just one of the perks of the job." She smiled and pulled out her iPad, settling in for the four hour flight. She put in her headphones and started the playback on her audiobook version of Fifty Shades of Grey. It had been a Christmas gift from Danielle in an attempt to "perk up her non-existent sex life". She hadn't had much interest in the book, but Danielle kept asking if she'd listened to it yet, so she might as well get it over with. She went through great pains to prevent Eyal from noticing the content of what she was listening to, because she had no doubt that she'd never hear the end of it if he knew.

It wasn't until they were 30,000 feet over South Carolina that the Mile High Club innuendo started. Annie was actually rather impressed that he had managed to restrain himself that long.

Somewhere over the Florida panhandle Annie couldn't suppress a snort of laughter at the horrendous book she was listening to. WTF? So he tied her hands to the head board with a necktie. This was supposed to be ultra kinky? Maybe for housewives like Danielle it was. Annie supposed it was all relative. She looked at her partner next to her with his own headphones in and now likely asleep. In keeping with their cover, he had worn a plain grey t shirt that hugged at his shoulders and chest in the nicest way, with a pair of well worn blue jeans. The sandals from Paris had also somehow reappeared. It was hard to give the book a fair shot when she had once, in real life, had the magnificent creature next to her zip-tied to a bed and then helped him take out a team of world renowned assassins. She leaned her head against his shoulder and returned her attention to the inane book as she absent mindedly spun the diamond ring on her finger.

Half way over the Gulf of Mexico Annie found herself so frustrated with the awful narrative of the book that she was half considering waking her partner and dragging him into the tiny restroom just to show the woman that wrote this piece of drivel what kinky really was. She had no idea how this load of anti-feminist crap had become so popular. She remembered hearing once that the novel had started out as a piece of Twilight fanfiction. _Seriously_ she mused_ what kind of antisocial basement dwellers sit around writing smutty fanfiction?_

Half an hour later, Annie had never been so excited in her life to hear the announcement that they were on their final approach to the airport and that all electronic devices needed to be shut off.

"So what have you been listening to that you find so amusing?" Her partner had roused at the announcement, or at least pretended to.

"Amusing isn't exactly the word I would use. And it's nothing important." She shoved the iPad back in her purse.

Not too long after, they were standing in the baggage claim area waiting for Eyal's bag. He had insisted on checking it. That way, with the proper documentation and declarations, he had been able to bring his Christmas present along for the trip. Annie wasn't really that surprised. He always carried a gun, but he was barely ever without the 9mm since she had given it to him. This had very likely been the longest he had been separated from it. She wondered if he would feel an overwhelming need to shoot something with it as soon as he got it back, the way a smoker immediately needs to light up after a long flight.

Eyal collected his bag and, thankfully, merely checked that the pistol was still inside. He then put an arm around her waist and they walked out to the ground transportation area where their shuttle was waiting for them. When they arrived at the resort the air was warm and humid and the smell of the salty Gulf spray was in the air. Annie could feel all the tension from the flight beginning to slip away.

They stepped up to the registration desk and Eyal requested the reservation under the name of Walker.

"Thank you sir." The young woman at the desk responded. "Here you are, the Honeymoon suite for two nights."

Annie's jaw dropped. "Excuse me. The _what_ suite?"

The lady politely repeated, "The Honeymoon suite. One California king sized bed, whirlpool bathtub, private balcony, and one of the most breathtaking views of the shoreline."

Annie kicked Eyal's ankle and whispered angrily through the side of her mouth "You did this!" Her mind raced at all the implications of them staying together in that room. She wasn't quite sure she was ready to make that leap, and certainly not on their first mission together.

"Of course, it's our honeymoon." Eyal smiled innocently and pulled her towards him.

The receptionist was beginning to seem concerned by her behavior, so she knew she needed to think quickly.

"Second honeymoon." Annie corrected gruffly and pushed him off of her. Then she turned to the receptionist. "Do you have anything available with separate beds?"

"Ma'am?" The poor girl was really confused now.

Annie continued. "I catch this pig schtuping his secretary and he thinks that flowers and apologies, and a fancy trip are going to make everything ok. It almost worked too, then he sits there on the plane hitting on the stewardess, right in front of me!"

"Honey, they're called flight attendants now." Eyal interrupted perfectly in character.

"Do you see what I mean?" She ranted at the receptionist. "There is no way I'm sleeping in the same bed with this douchebag."

"Let me see what I can do." The poor little brunette twenty-something frantically began typing at her keyboard. "I can move you to a business suite. It's got separate bedrooms, a kitchenette, and a couch." She emphasized the word couch slightly and looked in Eyal's direction as she said it.

Annie smiled. "Perfect. We'll take it."

The receptionist scanned the key cards, hit a few more buttons on the computer terminal, and handed them their keys. As Annie was turning away, but still making sure that she would see it, Eyal held his hand to the side of his head like a phone and mouthed "call me" to the receptionist with a lewd glance. Annie feigned outrage and shoved his shoulder before storming into the elevator.

The door shut with only the two of them inside and they both broke out into laughter. "Nice shot with the honeymoon suite." Annie glanced at him and playfully nudged his shoulder.

"Very well countered with the cheating husband angle." He returned her compliment.

"You played the part well." She smiled back at him.

Then he chuckled almost bitterly and held up his left hand. "Not my first time playing a crappy husband."

He had told her about his failed marriage a long time ago, but they never really discussed it much after that. It was just so hard for her to imagine him being bad at anything. But then again, she remembered how off-putting she had found the man when they had first met. She had once described him to Auggie as "an acquired taste". The mood between them had definitely sobered, and they both just stood in an awkward silence that dragged on for at least ten floors. Annie felt the need to try and break the uncomfortable tension. "Want to talk about it?"

"Absolutely not."

"Oh thank god." They were both relieved and then couldn't help laughing at themselves again.

Just then the elevator opened on the twenty-third floor. They followed the hallway until they saw the door for suite #2314 and then entered the room. It might not have been the honeymoon suite, but the view still took Annie's breath away. She walked through the living room and straight out onto the balcony. The Gulf of Mexico loomed out before them and the late afternoon sun was beginning to dip towards the horizon. The water was all different shades of teal and the sandy shore was nearly a perfect white. The beach wasn't too crowded, a few surfers were paddling out to catch some of the day's last waves, and a few brightly colored kite surfers jetted about just off shore.

She didn't even startle when Eyal stepped up behind her and wrapped his arms over her shoulders. "Still not as beautiful as the beaches in Israel, but it will do." He murmured in her ear.

She started to turn her head to look at him, but soon realized that the movement put her lips just a few inches from his. She quickly turned her head back and hoped he wouldn't notice the sudden increase in her heart rate.

She leaned back and rested against him as they just stood and watched the tropical scene before them. They had both been to places far more exotic and secluded than the resort town they were currently in, but it was warm and sunny, it smelled of ocean breezes, and there was something to be said for her current company.

"So, how would you like to spend this beautiful evening?" He asked suggestively in her ear.

She looked down at the people strolling along the beach as the afternoon's high tide began to recede. She could just feel the compacted sand beneath her feet. "I think I want to go for a run." She decided out loud.

"If you're looking for exercise, I can think of a few alternatives that don't even require leaving this room." He grinned at her.

She rolled her eyes at him and stepped out of his embrace. "I'm going for a run." She repeated with conviction. "You're welcome to join me. It probably wouldn't hurt you to get a little more exercise after all this American food you've been enjoying for the past month." She smiled wickedly at him and poked at a soft spot on his side above his hip. The man didn't have even a modest amount of excess body fat, but she couldn't resist the chance to see if she could make him even a little self-conscious.

"Nice try Neshema. You go exert yourself. I'll stay here in case Miguel shows up early." He plopped down onto the couch and turned on the large flat screen television.

"Suit yourself. I'm going to go get changed." She replied and dragged her suitcase into the bedroom and bathroom suite on the left. She hung up some clothes, put others in drawers, and changed out of her jeans and tank top and into a sports bra and running shorts. She was just looking in the mirror and pulling her hair into a pony-tail when Eyal opened the bedroom door and casually walked in.

"I was going to make us dinner reservations, what time do you think you'll be back from this little run of yours?" He asked eyeing the two different menus in his hands.

"What part of 'I'm getting changed' made it sound like it would be ok for you to just waltz in here?" She yelled at him.

He looked up at her for the first time and seemed slightly disappointed to see that she was already dressed, minimally at least. "What? A man can't walk into his wife's bedroom?"

"A real man and wife, sure." She put her ring clad left hand on his chest as she walked past him towards the door. "But you and me… you need to learn how to knock first."

He looked down at the open suitcase sitting on her bed and still containing a few items that she had yet to put away. Amongst them he recognized a small amount of white fabric and straps. He reached in and picked it up just as she was walking through the bedroom door. "I see you found the gift I left for you."

She spun instantly and stamped back over to him. He held the small bikini out towards her, then quickly lifted it out of her reach when she grabbed for it. She was seething. He recognized the expression on her face and handed it over to her. She tossed it back in the suitcase then began shoving him out the door back into the living room.

"Stay out of my stuff and out of my room!" She huffed at him.

He just smiled at her and repeated his earlier question, "So when should I make the dinner reservations?"

She really wanted to tell him that he should make his reservations for one, but the boyish smile he was giving her at the moment made it hard to stay angry at him for any extended period of time.

"I'll be back in an hour." She smiled, shook her head, and walked out the door.

…

Annie returned almost exactly an hour later. She had put in a solid five miles and it had felt great. Running always seemed to bring her clarity and peace of mind. Running along a beautiful beach with the sun shining and the smell of the salt air just made it that much more relaxing. The sun was just starting to sink below the western horizon and cast an amber hue over the water and the beach as Annie returned to the hotel. She entered the suite to find Eyal sitting on the balcony, reclined in a chez lounge chair with an empty and a pair of fresh bottles of Corona sitting on the small side table. He had changed into a white pair of chino pants rolled to just below his knees and a pastel pink button up shirt with the sleeves rolled back to his elbows.

"What, are you auditioning for Miami Vice?" She teased as she walked out onto the balcony.

"It's called maintaining our cover." He smiled up at her and shifted over in the chair so that there was just enough room for her to take a seat next to him.

She eyed the empty lounge chair to her right, then figured _what the hell_, and tentatively sat down sideways on the edge of the one to her left that her partner occupied. She picked up the fresh Corona bottles and handed one to him before squeezing the lime wedge on the bottle's mouth into the beer and squishing the wedge down the bottle's neck. He had done the same and they both took a long draw from their bottles as they looked out over the shoreline. The sun continued to set and was now bathing the beach in shades of orange and reds. They sat and enjoyed the sunset and drank their beer in silence for a few moments. Annie wasn't sure if it was the beer, coming down off of the adrenaline of her run, the Zen relaxation of watching a sunset, or a combination of the above, but she soon found herself swinging her legs up onto the chez and nudging his hip with hers to make a little more room for her. He inched over as much as possible and was rewarded with her leaning back against the cushioned chair back next to him and resting her head on his shoulder. He lifted his arm and draped it behind her neck and around her shoulders.

They lay there together in a comfortable silence, enjoying the beauty of the setting sun, occasionally sipping their beer, and thinking of nothing at all. The fingers of his right hand absent mindedly traced indiscernible random shapes on the bare skin of her right shoulder. She had curled into him slightly, and her right hand was resting on his chest. The first thought to enter her head was how easy it would be for her hand to slide over another inch and start undoing the buttons of his shirt, to then roll over and straddle his waist as she ran her hands along the taught chest and abdominal muscles beneath his undershirt. Just as her mind got to the point of reaching for the button of his pants, she opened her eyes and actually saw her hand moving towards the shirt buttons of its own accord.

She bolted upright. "I should go get showered and ready for dinner." It sounded forced and awkward, but she was afraid for what would happen if she remained there with him, like that, any longer.

His response was as cool and composed as ever, "That's probably a good idea. I wasn't going to say anything, but you do smell a bit."

She swatted his shoulder playfully as she got up and headed back into the hotel room. When she got to the balcony door she turned and added, "I'm going to take a shower. Under no circumstance should you walk into my bathroom while I am doing so." He looked like he was about to interject, so she continued, "I mean it. I don't care if the entire Columbian cartel is at our door, if the hotel explodes, or if there is a tsunami coming straight at us. Do not come into my room without knocking."

"So that's a 'no' on joining you in the shower then?" He asked with a smirk.

She gave an exasperated and angry grunt and stormed off to her room. No small part of her really did want him to join her in the shower. That was the problem. She contemplated that as she washed off the sweat and salt and sand. While everyone was calling them partners, the truth was that she was supposed to be his handler. She was supposed to ensure that all his actions were loyal to the CIA and that he was not some kind of Mossad double agent. She knew the latter was preposterous, but the fact that Langley had concerns meant that there would be evaluations and polygraphs upon their return. She had no doubt that they would ask about sexual relations. There was no keeping a relationship a secret in the CIA. How would it reflect on her if she slept with him on their first mission together? And so soon after Simon. That was a reputation she really didn't want to develop. And he had to realize that as well, for his sake. Sleeping with her on their first mission was not a good way to convince people that he wasn't trying to exploit her. So did he mean any of it, or was it all just bravado? Had every one of his advances all just been a game? Did he have any feelings for her beyond trusted partner? Could she possibly overthink this situation any more if she tried? She realized the last bit as she stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around her torso. She rolled her eyes at herself, for once. Feelings, no feelings… it didn't matter. This was neither the time nor the place. Ok, the place could be a lot worse, but the timing was the deal-breaker.

She dressed in a white and emerald colored sundress and put on a pair of strappy sandals that laced nearly half way up her calves. She put on no make-up other than some lip gloss and was just drying her hair when she heard a knock at the bedroom door. She turned off the blow dryer and heard Eyal's voice.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to come in. I just wanted to let you know that our reservations are for twenty minutes from now."

She walked over to the door and opened it. He had begun to walk back towards the living room, but turned as he heard the door. Some quip had been on the tip of his tongue but died on his lips as he took in the sight of her. His eyes drifted over her from head to toe, and Annie couldn't help but blush slightly at the reverent expression on his face.

"I'll only be another minute." She added with a soft smile before returning to the en suite bathroom to finish her hair. She left the door open behind her and he followed her into the room. He sat on the corner of the bed and watched her pace back and forth with the hair dryer in front of the bathroom mirror. When she finished and emerged a few minutes later he stood and offered his arm. She accepted it and they walked towards the door.

Eyal paused before opening the hotel room door and leaned down to whisper in her ear, "We could always just stay in and order room service."

"Come on." She chose not to dignify his suggestion with a direct response, opened the door, and stepped out into the hallway.

They had a lovely dinner at the hotel's Terrace Grill with a table near the window providing a beautiful view of the moon reflecting over the ocean outside. They kept the conversation light and made every attempt to keep up the appearance of a happy couple that had slipped away for a brief vacation in paradise. The food had been delicious and the wine even better. After dinner they took a stroll along the beach, hand-in-hand under a nearly full moon. When they finally came to a rather secluded section of shoreline they sat in the sandy dunes. A trace of sadness seemed to cross his face as they stared out at the ocean.

"Something wrong?" Annie asked sincerely.

"It has been a while since I have been able to just relax at a beach. It made me wonder if I will get a chance to see the sunset over Beit Yanai again." He sighed, leaned back, and rested on his elbows.

Ever since they had first met, he had always spoken so fondly of the beauty of the beaches in his country. Annie couldn't imagine how difficult it must be for him, not knowing if he would ever be able to go home again. She scooted over closer to him and reached over to gently run her nails along the back of his neck and into his hair. She could feel some of his tension start to drain as she massaged the back of his scalp. "I know it doesn't make up for everything you've given up, but does it help to know that I'm really glad that you're the one here with me right now?"

He silently sat up, leaned over her, and planted his hands on either side of her waist. He buried his face in the crook of her neck and murmured, "It helps more than you know."

Then one of his hands was at the base of her neck guiding her backwards until her head rested on the sand. She lost all capacity for logical thought as she felt him shift his weight partially on top of her. He was resting on his elbows looking down into her eyes. There was no doubt that he was about to lean in and kiss her, and she was going to let him. Langley, the CIA, Mossad, none of it registered at that moment. The only thing that mattered was the look of unadulterated driving need in his eyes.

Annie felt her eyelids reflexively flicker shut as he began to lean down towards her. Then they suddenly shot open as she felt a distinct vibrating sensation over her hip. "Um. Either you're really happy to see me, or your phone is ringing." She couldn't help but start to laugh at the situation.

"La-azazel!" He groaned loudly, sat up, and rocked back onto his knees before pulling the offensive object from his front pocket.

She was still giggling at him as she sat up and he checked the caller ID.

He snorted out loud before sliding his finger across the touchscreen of his DPD issued phone and answering in an agitated voice, "Auggie. What can I do for you?"

"Oh, I was just calling to check in and see how the op was going." The other man had an undeniable smile in his voice after hearing Eyal's tone on answering the call. "I'm not interrupting anything am I?"

Annie could hear Auggie's voice clearly enough over the iPhone's speaker to make out both sides of the conversation. She had to admit that Auggie's timing with his phone calls always bordered on telepathic.

"Well I was just in the middle of tearing Annie's clothes off and having my way with her in a tequila fueled sexcapade…"

"He was not!" Annie yelled over Eyal's shoulder into the phone as she gave him a good shove.

"Walker, good to hear that your partner's not sexually exploiting you on your first mission together."

"What do you really want Auggie?" Annie questioned. Eyal gave up and handed her the phone.

"The weather got pretty bad today. We're snowed in here at Langley until the plows get some of the streets cleared. Joan is getting a little antsy about you two, so I thought I'd call in and put her mind to ease."

"We're fine." Annie answered. "No word from Miguel yet. Mostly we've been sitting around, eating, and waiting."

"That's all?" Auggie's voice seemed to insinuate something.

"That's all." Annie answered succinctly. "You can let Joan know that there has been no contact yet, no signs of the mission being compromised, no evidence that Eyal is double dealing with Mossad, and no sexcapades."

"Well I'm sure she'll be happy to hear that." Auggie replied.

"Good bye Auggie." Annie smiled into the phone as he ended the connection.

She handed the phone back to Eyal and he slid it back into his pocket as he asked coyly, "So where were we?"

"We were just getting up to head back inside." She gave him a look that clearly said that the moment was over.

"So you're going to hold out on me after all that?" He acted put out.

"Yup."

"It really is like we're married." He smiled at her.

"Just doing my part to keep up our cover." She smiled back.

They made their way back to the hotel room and got ready for bed. They met briefly in the kitchen area as Annie was getting a glass of water. She had on an oversized t-shirt with a logo from some punk rock band she had listened to during her college days and a pair of polka dotted boxer shorts. It certainly wasn't her sexiest night-ware, but she hadn't intended it to be. But once she took a good look at him, she suddenly became a little self-conscious. He was wearing only a pair of light blue, cotton, drawstring pajama pants. And he'd left the drawstring untied so that they hung precariously low on his hip bones. She saw no evidence of any waste-band underneath, indicating that the thin cotton pants were very likely the only thing he had on. She hoped he didn't notice the unconscious gulp she took when she came to that realization. She grabbed her water and left the shared living space as quickly as possible.

Annie had been lying in bed for just over half an hour with the lights out and still hadn't fallen asleep. Eyal had turned off the rest of the lights and retreated to his room only moments after she left him in the kitchen. The hotel suite had grown eerily silent. Then she heard his voice in an exaggerated whisper. "Annie are you awake?"

"Yes Eyal." She called back.

"Since it would appear that neither of us is actually asleep, I was wondering if you might want to come over here and…"

She cut him off, "Goodnight Eyal."

"Good night Annie."

She was asleep within a few minutes.

…

The next morning they took their time getting up and getting ready. Around 10:00 they made their way down to the poolside café for a late breakfast. When Eyal gave their name to the hostess she double checked something in her book.

"Yes. Mr. and Mrs. Walker. A Mr. Marquez requested that you join him for breakfast. He said that you would be expecting him?" She sounded unsure.

Annie smiled and chimed in. "Oh, Miguel is here. We weren't sure he was going to be able to make it. Thank you so much for accommodating us."

The hostess then led the pair to a small table where a Hispanic man was sitting. They both recognized him as their contact.

Again, Annie was the first to address him. "Hola Miguel. Bienvenido. Como esta su hermana en los Estados Unidos?"

The man cautiously answered, "Esta bien. Ella y su familia compran un macaw nuevo."

Annie continued. "Estan un henbra pajaro. Se estan volviendo extranos _en estado salvaje__._"

"Hola. You two must be my new handlers." The man presumed after the scripted exchange. "They told me it would be a pair this time."

"Do you have the information?" Eyal asked, trying not to sound impatient.

He slowly slid a thumb drive across the table. Eyal calmly pocketed it. Annie then reached into her purse, removed a small envelope and slipped it inside a menu before handing them out to Miguel and Eyal. Miguel accepted the menu and discreetly pocketed the envelope.

"Gracias." He finished the last of his cup of coffee and stood to leave.

"Miguel, please stay for breakfast." Annie asked politely.

"I must return before I am missed." He replied.

"Gracias." She thanked him and he left the restaurant calmly.

Eyal looked around, eyeing every hotel guest and staff member within his line of sight. After he felt confident that nothing seemed out of place he opened his menu and began perusing the food choices.

"I should call Langley. Let them know that we've made the handoff." Annie whispered across the table.

"First we should eat breakfast. We need to maintain our cover, remember?"

She acquiesced and they ate a quick meal before returning to their room. Once there she picked up her phone and called Joan.

"Annie, is everything alright?" were Joan's words of greeting.

"Everything's fine. We completed the hand off with Miguel and there are no signs that we were made." Annie put the phone on speaker so Eyal could hear as well.

"Good work you two."

"Since we're done here I was wondering if it would be possible to get us on an earlier flight home." Annie asked.

"Sorry Annie, that's not going to be possible." Joan sounded like she was slightly distracted as she replied.

"But the mission is finished here. The sooner we can get this intel back to the DPD, the better."

"I'm aware of that, but you seem to be unaware of the weather troubles we are having here. All the flights into DC, Baltimore, and even Richmond are getting severely delayed, cancelled, or re-routed. If we start trying to change your reservations, we'll likely just end up delaying your return even further."

"So we're just supposed to sit around here and wait?" What Joan had said made some sense, but Annie wasn't entirely buying it.

"Annie, this is an extremely low risk mission that does not appear to have been compromised. You and Eyal did an excellent job and your work there is done. You're at one of the world's top vacation destinations. Take these next twenty-four hours and relax. I'm sure you two will find some way to keep yourselves occupied."

There's no way that Joan had really just said what she had said. Annie looked to Eyal for support, but he had a cat-that-ate-the-canary grin plastered so widely across his face that she realized that she wasn't about to get any back up from him on this matter.

Annie was still skeptical and hesitant as she spoke, "Alright then. I guess we'll see you when we get back Thursday evening."

"Alright. Goodbye Annie, Eyal."

"Bye Joan." Eyal added enthusiastically over Annie's shoulder, interjecting into the conversation for the first time before reaching around her and hitting the disconnect logo on the phone's screen.

"This is serious." Annie looked up at Eyal with eyes as wide as saucers. "Langley has obviously been infiltrated. Who was that, and what did they do with Joan Campbell?" They both chuckled.

"Well Neshema, what do you want to do today?" He picked up a few activity brochures from the counter that the hotel had supplied.

"We can't really do much since we need to keep the intel safe." She answered.

Eyal held up a finger to indicate that he had an idea, walked over to the closet in the foyer, opened the small safe inside, grabbed the thumb drive from his pocket, tossed it inside, and closed the safe door. "Now the intel is safe. I ask again, what do you want to do with this beautiful day?"

"Seriously? What happened to 'a Mossad man never separates from his package'?" She questioned mockingly.

"Perhaps you have forgotten, but I'm CIA now. It's standard protocol to leave our intel package lying about unattended in random places. I believe you taught me that once."

She rolled her eyes at him and sighed. She took a look at the safe and let Joan's instructions replay through her mind. Then she looked out the big balcony window to the ocean beyond. "I assume you're scuba certified?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

…

An hour and a half later they were in wet suits and rented scuba gear pushing off of a platform into the crystal clear spring fed waters of the Cenotes Dos Ojos, one of the longest interconnected series of underwater caverns in the world. When they had rented the equipment, the hotel's dive shop owner had expressed some concern for the pair, as the dive through the western cave system referred to as the "second eye" could be dark and narrow in places. He said that without a dive partner that you could really trust, it could be dangerous. They really tried not to laugh at the comment, and ensured him that they would be fine.

The dive was breathtaking and they spent the entire afternoon exploring the underwater caves and passages. They worked together as seamlessly as dive buddies as they did with everything else in their lives. Despite choosing to go through some of the more difficult cavern systems, their trust in each other and ability to communicate without words left them feeling safe and confident in their adventure the entire time. They only returned when their oxygen levels were becoming too low to allow them to stay out any further.

They sat at the picnic area at the entrance to the cave system as they waited for the dive shop shuttle to return for them. They helped remove each other's scuba gear, then they both unzipped their wet suits and left the top half to hang around their waists. Eyal could not hide his prideful smile when she pulled down the top of her wet suit to reveal the white bikini top underneath.

"So I see that my gift did not go to waste after all."

She was so tempted to fling back some kind of standard witty sarcastic retort, but after the once in a life-time experience they had just shared in those amazing prehistoric caves and knowing that there was no one else she trusted enough that could have made that dive with her, she just couldn't bring herself to do it. "It fit very nicely under the wetsuit. Thank you." She smiled at him kindly.

He seemed pleasantly surprised by her choice of sincerity over sarcasm and was left without a come-back of his own. Instead he just sat down next to her at the picnic table and draped his arm over her shoulder. "That was an amazing dive."

"I know, right? The formations along the walls of the passage into the cavern they called 'the bat cave' were incredible." They sat and excitedly discussed the dive for the ten minutes until the shuttle arrived.

Once they were back at the hotel and had returned their gear, they walked along the beach for a short ways. They had remained in their swimwear after leaving the dive shop – Annie wearing her gifted white bikini with a sarong tied around her waist and Eyal in a simple pair of shorts – and were attempting to soak up some of the afternoon sun before they had to return to the blizzard conditions of DC. They didn't walk very far before they came to a beachside cantina bar and grill and realized that they were both quite hungry from their underwater exertions. Annie had a margarita with her blackened grouper sandwich and Eyal finished off two Dos Equis with his fish tacos. Bodies tired, bellies full, and minds relaxed, they spent the remainder of the afternoon and evening lounging on the hotel's strip of beach and by the pool. As the sun began to set they walked along the beach until they found their secluded spot in the dunes from the previous night. They sat and silently watched the vibrant sunset fade into twilight. They both knew that, whatever her true motivations, Joan's forced day of relaxation had let them share an experience that they would never forget. Apparently they really did know where to draw the line, because neither dared to taint the memory of the day with any of their typical suggestive innuendo. As darkness engulfed the sky and the first few stars began to appear in the heavens, Eyal stood and extended a hand out to her. She graciously accepted his assistance and they walked back towards the hotel still clutching hands. A live calypso reggae band was playing for the guests on steel drums near the pool and they stopped to listen for a while. It was shortly after 8 pm when they finally returned to their room.

"Are you hungry?" He asked as she poured herself a glass of water.

"Not really."

"I was just going to have something sent up. Are you sure you don't want anything?"

"Maybe an appetizer or something small and bland."

"Are you feeling alright Neshema?" He asked, concerned.

"I'm fine. I think I just got a little dehydrated." She downed nearly the full glass. "I'll feel better after a shower. Order me whatever."

…

She did feel better after her shower and another two glasses of water. She dressed in a tank top and another pair of boxer shorts, plaid tonight, and walked out into the shared living space. Eyal was just signing the check for the room service and had obviously also snuck in a quick shower before it had arrived. His hair was still wet from the shower and he was dressed in a pair of pajama pants similar to the last night's, but tonight he also wore a white undershirt with them. Annie looked over and found the tray of food sitting on the coffee table in front of the couch.

"Feeling better?" He asked.

"Much better."

"Excellent, because I got something for dessert and it just wouldn't do if you were feeling under the weather."

She looked at the table and saw the steak dinner obviously meant for him, a bowl of tortilla soup which was absolutely what she needed, and a bottle of tequila with two shot glasses.

"You do like to live dangerously." She smiled at him.

They sat on the couch and ate in companionable silence, all their efforts directed at their food. Once they had finished, he carried the tray outside. When he returned to the couch she was pouring the golden liquid into the two shot glasses.

"So what are we drinking to?" She asked as she handed him the glass and picked up the salt shaker from the table. She licked the inside of her left wrist then shook some salt onto the moist spot.

His eyes intimately followed the path her tongue had taken across the soft skin of her inner wrist and lingered on her lips as he accepted the salt shaker she handed him. "Whatever you would like." He replied before licking and salting his right wrist.

"You're the one that bought the tequila."

He contemplated for a moment. "To finally having a mission go as planned." He smiled at her and held out his glass.

"I'll drink to that." She smiled back. They clinked their shot glasses together, licked the salt from their wrists, and downed the liquor in one swallow. Annie blinked roughly and scrunched her nose as they each reached for the small cup of lime wedges. They both set their glasses down on the table and sucked the sour juice from the fruit slices.

Eyal instantly refilled the glasses. They both sprinkled more salt on their wrists and this time Annie added, "To the unpredictable DC weather and an extra day in paradise."

"I couldn't agree more." Eyal agreed and they repeated the toast, salt, shot, lime routine.

Again Eyal began to refill the glasses.

"Easy there partner." Annie cautioned. "Maybe we should give those first two a chance to kick in before we get all the way down to the worm."

"What would be the fun in that?" His eyes gleamed.

"The fun is in us being conscious enough to make our flight tomorrow." She started to question why she always had to be the voice of reason. She got up, walked over to the counter and grabbed her phone. She set the alarm for 7:30 am, figuring that should give them enough time to get dressed, packed and through the airport international security screening before their noon flight even if they were still hung over. The tequila was already starting to make her feel a little light headed and slightly bold. She began to wonder what would happen if she got tired of being the responsible one. How much of his irresponsible and suggestive innuendo did he only put out there because he was confident that she would shoot it down?

He looked at her expectantly as she returned to the couch. "Fine. Bring on the next one." She relented and he finished pouring.

She sat cross legged on the couch looking at him and he shifted and turned so that he was facing her. He reached out and brushed a strand of hair back behind her ear tenderly before picking up the salt shaker and preparing for the next shot. He handed it to her and announced, "To having a partner that doesn't make me hate having to work with a partner." He looked at her with sincerity and a slight hint of something more shining in his eyes.

She was really starting to feel the effect of the first two shots now. She wasn't quite dizzy yet, but she knew that was coming. She briefly pondered why she was feeling the effects of only two shots so quickly, when she knew from experience that her tolerance for alcohol rivaled that of the larger man next to her. She decided to ignore the concern and focus that man. She shook out some of the salt while keeping eye contact with him. She wondered if her slipping inhibitions were starting to show in her expression, because something he saw in her eyes made his smile take on an intrigued quality. That was just enough. She was tired of being the responsible one, the bad cop, the one that always said "no". She looked deep into his eyes and added, "To my partner."

He smiled at her and lifted his right wrist towards his mouth. But before it could get there she grabbed it, leaned in, and pulled his wrist to her mouth instead. Never breaking eye contact, she placed her lips over the soft skin and slowly licked away the salt. He was too stunned to move, so she took the shot glass from his right hand and gulped it down, before downing her own. She finally turned away from him to put the glasses on the coffee table and grab a lime, when strong hands gripped her hips and pulled. Before she could resist, she found herself straddling him. Their height difference left her looking straight into his eyes from this position. He leaned in, but reached around her and filled one of the shot glasses. Then he leaned back and took her left hand in his. He brought her wrist up to his mouth and placed a series of kisses along the pulse point, licking off the salt in the process before letting the hand go and slowly swallowing his shot.

They held their heated eye contact. It was as if they were each daring each other to make the next move. The sensation of his mouth on her skin had sent Annie's mind into orbit. Rational thought was gone. Basically any thought was gone. All that was left were feelings, and need. Her head was swimming. She was staring at him so hard that she began to lose focus. Her heart was pounding in her throat and her stomach was doing cartwheels as he gently lifted a hand to cup her face. She pressed her cheek into his palm and the cool skin felt good against hers. She blinked a few times, trying to make her eyes focus more clearly on his again, and noticed that the anxiety that was gripping her stomach was only getting worse. Then it hit her like a truck. She wasn't nervous. She was nauseous.

"Oh God." She sputtered out before abruptly scrambling off of his lap and darting for the bathroom.

Eyal remained stuck in place momentarily, trying to process what had just happened. Then he heard her retch in the bathroom. Realizing that the ending to this trip that he had attempted to orchestrate was now over, he got up slowly, walked to the kitchen, filled a glass with water, and found a couple of ibuprofen. Then he walked into her bathroom, but stopped at the bathroom door that had been partially shut when she had bolted in. He knocked softly, "Annie, you ok?"

Her response was a pathetic sounding, "No."

"I'm coming in." He prepared her as he slowly stepped through the door.

She was sitting on the tile floor in front of the toilet and reached up to flush it when he approached. "You knocked." It came out meekly, but was followed with a slight smile, so he smiled back.

He walked over and sat on the edge of the bathtub next to her. He handed her the glass of water and instructed, "Drink this slowly."

She used the first sip to rinse out her mouth and spit it into the bowl in front of her. Then she took a few tentative sips. "This is so embarrassing." She muttered.

"You're embarrassed? How do you think I feel knowing that I have this effect on you?" He smiled down at her.

She tried to smile up at him, but the effort sent her back heaving into the toilet. Eyal reached over and gently collected her hair, pulling it back away from her face. It was obvious that she was suffering the effects of more than just a few shots of tequila. He held her hair and gently rubbed soft soothing circles on her back as she clutched the porcelain and continued to retch.

When her stomach finally started to quiet and there was nothing left for her to bring up, she rinsed her mouth again and sat back.

She looked up at her partner as he continued stroking her back. "I guess I wasn't just dehydrated earlier."

"I should have realized it too. It must have been that fish you ate at the cantina. And the tequila probably didn't help." He commiserated. He held out the Advil and the glass of water. "Do you think you can keep these down now?"

"Maybe?"

"That's a good start."

She took the pills with a small sip of water and started to stand up. She was wobbly, and Eyal was instantly there to support her. He helped her over to the sink, where she washed her face and brushed her teeth. It seemed that she had managed not to vomit on herself any, and she thanked the universe for small favors. Eyal led her over to her bed and pulled back the covers. As she crawled under, he pulled the waste bin up next to the bed and the covers up to her chin, then left the room. He quickly returned with a sports drink from the mini-fridge and uncapped it. "The electrolytes will help." He added calmly as he held the bottle out to her.

She took a sip and looked up at him. "Back in college we had a saying." She started with a smile, her voice still weak. "Your true friend is the person that's there to hold your hair back for you while you puke."

"So you admit that we are officially friends now?" He smiled.

"You could say that." She whispered.

He leaned over and gently kissed her forehead. "Rest. If you need anything, just yell and I'll be right here."

"I don't think I can yell." She still sounded hoarse and pathetic.

"Then move over." He commanded softly as he walked around the bed to the other side, pulled back the covers, and climbed under with her. He lay beside her and pulled her back to his chest. Despite the heated moment they had been sharing not that long ago, the only emotion he showed for her now was concern. He started with his left hand on her shoulder, and let it trace down the length of her arm to her fingers, where he intertwined them with his own. Then she pulled the hand up to a comfortable resting spot under her chin. He let his arm drape over her shoulder, but tried to make sure he wasn't putting any pressure on her already turbulent stomach. The embrace was friendly and comforting, nothing more.

She marveled at his willingness and ability to go from sixth gear straight down to neutral time and time again when life… and Auggie… kept picking the exact wrong moments to interrupt them.

She started to roll onto her back to face him, wanting to let him know that she truly believed that someday the timing would work out and he could finally abandon all that restraint and composure. But as she moved slightly, she felt the world start to lurch. A firm chest snug against her back kept her in lateral recumbency and staved off the vertigo.

"You should stay on your side in case you get sick in the night." He instructed.

"Ok." She murmured, grogginess beginning to set it.

"Neshema, before you fall asleep, will you promise me something?" He whispered in her ear.

"Anything." She whispered back.

"If you do start puking again in the night, can you make sure to puke that way?" With a smile, he nudged her shoulder indicating to aim for the waist bin next to the bed.

"Just for you, partner." She smiled back as much as she could manage as she drifted off to sleep.

Annie's head was pounding, her mouth was bone dry, and she couldn't seem to focus enough to locate the source of the horrible metallic screeching noise. Slowly a little more clarity came to her, and she recognized the sound of her iPhone's alarm. She felt the bed shift a little, something moved over her, and then the horrible noise stopped. Then the bed dipped again and she heard footsteps shuffling off into the kitchen. The footsteps returned a few minutes later and then soft fingers traced along the side of her jaw.

"Come on Annie. Time to get up." A soft a familiar voice whispered.

She blinked her eyes open and found Eyal kneeling in front of her next to the bed.

"Good morning." He smiled at her once she finally opened her eyes and focused on his face. Then he held up a fresh glass of water and two more ibuprofen.

Annie sat up slowly, and while she felt gross and achy, she wasn't nauseous any more. She accepted the water and pills and downed them quickly.

"How do you feel?" He asked.

"Better." She answered. "Gross, but better."

"Then go get yourself cleaned up. I ordered breakfast."

She slowly got up and the smell of the salty air made her feel a little better. Eyal had opened the big glass doors onto the balcony to let the breeze in. As he turned to leave her to her morning routine, she stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. "Thank you. For everything."

"I'm not sure I can take credit for _everything_, but for last night, you're welcome."

They smiled at each other for a moment before he turned to leave the bedroom. As he was walking through the door she added with a hint of sarcasm, "Who knew you could actually be a gentleman?"

"When the mood strikes me." He answered without turning around.

Their breakfast arrived shortly after they finished showering, dressing, and packing. They ate on the balcony and enjoyed one last morning of warm sunshine. After breakfast they collected their things, retrieved the thumb drive from the safe, and made their way down stairs to check out. They approached the front desk together, his arm draped around her waist. They were both all smiles as he announced that they were there to check out. Annie recognized the same receptionist that had checked them in. She seemed a little surprised to see the formerly dysfunctional couple looking so content together, but didn't say anything about it.

They were crammed back into the coach section of yet another plane like little sardines before they knew it. They reached their cruising altitude and Annie contemplated whether to finish listening to Danielle's Christmas present like a dutiful sister, or to just put on some music. While the Lumineers album beckoned to her, she knew how happy it would make Danielle to be able to chat about the book like teenagers with a dirty secret the next time they talked. She sighed and let the book drone into her headphones.

By the time they were over land again the book was nearly over. She was mostly bored with it at that point. Nothing about it had ever come even close to capturing the desire or sensuality that the man next to her had made her easily feel a half dozen times during their three day stay at the beach. There was no denying their feelings for each other now. Now it just seemed like a waiting game to see when the time would be right to act on those feelings. She really hoped it would be soon. She was getting tired of feeling sexually frustrated. And the stupid book wasn't helping.

Just then Eyal, also seeming bored, turned to her, gently pulled the earbud from her ear, and whispered into that ear in a very quiet and husky tone, "I know you've been listening to that smut both times we've been on these planes together. It must be getting rather frustrating for you." Annie swallowed hard, and he continued. "I could help you with that, as a friend of course. The timing can't get much more ideal."

Annie shivered a bit, partly from the fact that he may as well have just read her mind, and partly from the rush of his breath over her earlobe. She looked around. He was absolutely right. Half the cabin's occupants were asleep and the other half were engrossed in whatever multi-media they had brought with them. No one would notice if the occupants of seats 27 A and B both casually made their way back to the lavatory at the rear of the plane. She looked up at him and let a devious smile mull at the corner of her mouth. Then she pulled out her other earbud and put the iPad in the seat pocket in front of her. He looked at her with an expression of being pleasantly surprised. She quirked an eyebrow at him and unclasped her seat belt.

**A/N: Yup. That's exactly where I'm stopping this chapter. This was supposed to be a fluffy short filler chapter before the next one, which is an important one and really gets the story arch rolling. Instead it took on a life of its own and became a fluffy ENORMOUS filler chapter. The next one is already mostly down on paper and the rest is pretty well finished in my head, so it shouldn't be long.**

**Translation of Annie and Miguel's dialogue (in case anyone cares):**

**Annie: Hello Miguel. Welcome. How is your sister is the U.S.?**

**Miguel: She is well. She and her family just bought a new macaw.**

**Annie: They are beautiful birds. I hear they are becoming rare in the wild.**

**And who thought four years of Spanish in high school would never pay off…**

**Next time on Covert Affairs: Next Tuesday – Someone's leaking classified missile component specs to the FSB. Joan assigns our intrepid duo to turn an asset against her boyfriend, the assumed source of the leak. What could possibly go wrong? Did I forget to mention that the asset and the target are swingers active in "the lifestyle" social scene? Yeah. That could complicate things.**


	4. Mr Brightside

**A/N: I forgot to mention last time that due to the subject matter addressed in this chapter, the rating is going up to M. Hope you all still enjoy.**

Now they're going to bed  
And my stomach is sick  
And it's all in my head  
But she's touching his chest now.  
He takes off her dress now.  
Let me go.  
And I just can't look.  
It's killing me  
And taking control

**Mr. Brightside – The Killers**

"No really, what's your plan?" Auggie asked Eyal as they sat at Allen's Tavern going through a pitcher of Killian's faster than they had anticipated.

"Same as always. Make contact, seduce the woman, get what I need, get out before anyone's the wiser." He responded.

"You realize that's not going to work, right?"

"Trust me Auggie, this is not a department I have trouble in." Eyal found it slightly disconcerting when the blind man rolled his eyes at him.

"Yeah, except this time Annie's going to be right there beside you. You really think you're going to take this asset to bed with her watching?"

"That's basically the assignment. Why not?" He tried to be flippant about it.

"Right…" Auggie let the single word draw out.

"If there's something you want to say to me Auggie, why don't you just go ahead and say it."

"There is no way you are going to have sex with this asset."

"I've been doing this a lot longer than you have…" Eyal started.

Auggie interrupted, "I didn't say you wouldn't be able to get the woman to sleep with you, I said _you_ wouldn't do it."

"You have no idea what I would or wouldn't do." Eyal contradicted.

"I know you wouldn't hurt Annie like that."

And to that, Eyal had no response.

Auggie continued, "Face it, everyone in the department, except for Annie herself, sees what's going on."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Eyal immediately took a long swig of his beer and realized that there was no polygraph in the world that he would have been able to pass with that one.

"Right. Because you're not in love with Annie."

Eyal opened his mouth to object, but realized there was no way he was going to get that lie past the blind man across the table from him. "I suppose we can smell our own…" he mused.

"Touché." Auggie answered.

They both sat and drank silently for a moment.

Eyal broke the silence. "Do you think that Joan realizes that by partnering me with Annie, she has effectively castrated me?"

"I'd bet she's fully aware of that fact."

"Arthur is a much braver man than I." Eyal quipped.

"I'll second that." Auggie agreed and held up his glass. Eyal clinked his against it and they both smiled and took a long swallow of the reddish amber liquid.

It was a few moments before they spoke again. Auggie decided to change the subject. "So you never did tell me what happened on the way back from Mexico."

"Nothing." Eyal laughed. "She's getting better at lying you know."

"I hadn't noticed. But then I don't usually give her a reason to need to lie to me."

"Well she had me completely convinced for a solid twenty seconds that she was going to take me up on my friendly offer to induct her into the Mile High Club."

"Really? Because in what world could you ever actually imagine her doing that?"

"Exactly. She's getting _that_ good."

"Or you're getting _that_ desperate." Auggie smiled as he said it.

"I prefer to believe the former."

"Whatever helps you get through the day. And more importantly, this mission." Auggie drained the rest of his cup and reached for the empty pitcher. "One more?" He asked when he realized they had finished it.

Eyal nodded and signaled to the waitress. A moment later she brought the pair a fresh pitcher. They turned the conversation to more trivial matters, like Argentina's chance at the World Cup this year and whether Stu's new girlfriend, that he had introduced to the guys from work the previous weekend , was actually a hired escort.

…

Joan sat in bed reading, waiting for Arthur to join her. He had been stuck late at the office and finally gotten home a few minutes earlier. He had inhaled the left overs she had saved for him in the refrigerator without even warming them, then hurried up to meet his wife in their bedroom. Things had been going well between them since she had admitted to her relapse. He had been supportive, and with the improved morale in the DPD, she was feeling even more confident in her recovery. It had actually brought them closer together.

Arthur stepped out of the bathroom, and joined her in the bed. "I hear you're doing some very naughty things with your new toy." He smiled lasciviously at her.

She closed her book, put it on the night stand, and turned to him. "You are going to have to be more specific." She replied with a coy smile.

He raised an eyebrow slightly at his wife. "I was referring to the Reed mission. Sending Walker and Lavin into a swinger social club..."

"I needed a pair of agents that could pass as a couple and are attractive enough to hold the interest of the targets. They were the logical choice."

"Except for the part where he's in love with her, and you're making them seduce other people in front of each other. What could possibly go wrong with that?" He added the last bit sarcastically.

"I'm also not entirely sure that Annie doesn't have feelings for him as well." Joan added.

"All the more reason that they may not be the right choice for this."

"It's the perfect mission for them." Joan defended. "If they really do have feelings for each other then they will either need to learn to put their feelings aside for the mission or become resourceful enough to work around them. If they can't, it's better to know now before we invest any more time or resources into Eyal."

"Not every partnership in the Agency works out the way ours did." Arthur cautioned her. "If this ends badly, you'd still choose to keep Walker over a highly trained former-Mossad assassin?"

"Yes, I would keep Annie in the DPD. I'm sure you could find something to do with Eyal. Send him off on covert missions like you did with Ben Mercer. You could make a whole black-ops department of Annie's cast-offs." She smiled glibly at her husband.

"My concern is that if you have to separate them, we'll lose Lavin. He's already shown a stronger loyalty to that young woman than to his own country and agency." Arthur warned.

"Well, then let's hope they can find a way to get through this mission." She stubbornly smiled back.

"You're hoping for an awful lot from these two. You know how hard it is for operatives with emotional attachments to each other to work together in the field and survive it."

"We did it."

"But that was no walk in the park. You aren't starting to buy into all the office scuttlebutt that people are saying she reminds them of you when you were fresh off the farm, are you?"

"Is it so hard to believe that there's still a little bit of that hopeless romantic you fell in love with left in me?" She smiled softly at him and put a hand on his chest.

"I don't know. Let's see if I can find it." He rolled on top of his wife and began to kiss her as he reached over and turned out the lamp on her night stand.

…

"I still don't get it." Annie sighed, frustrated.

"We suspect her boyfriend has been giving classified missile component specs to his new girlfriend, who is likely an FSB agent. What's not to get?" Eyal shrugged.

Annie, Eyal, and Auggie were sitting at her desk in the DPD as the last half hour of the official work week ticked slowly away. "I get the mission. What I don't get is the lifestyle choice."

"Ah yes. 'The Lifestyle'." Auggie interjected. "Turns out that it's actually much more common than people believe, especially in this part of the country."

"What's so hard to understand ?" Eyal questioned. "It's an excuse for people that are unhappy in their relationships to have sex with other people."

Annie wasn't convinced. "That's what I always thought too, but look at this woman that we're supposed to turn. Sasha's been with this one guy, Phillip Reed, for six years now. They date, they go on vacations together, they do everything a regular couple does, but then most weekends they go to this club, meet other couples and trade partners for the night. They aren't married. They don't have kids. They don't even live together. If the relationship is missing something that badly, why not just break up?"

"Maybe they really do have strong feelings for each other?" Auggie proposed.

"Then why did Phil start up with a second girlfriend?" Annie railed.

"That one's easy." Eyal commented. He and Auggie nodded in each other's general direction and sniggered.

"So she's a model from the Ukraine and almost half his age. Is that really all it takes?"

"Yes." Both Eyal and Auggie answered definitively at the same time.

"Men." Annie grumbled. "But why take this Sofiya on as a girlfriend? Why not just sleep with her on occasion? It's not like making her his girlfriend makes her stop sleeping with other guys? I mean, she sleeps with other guys in front of him!"

Eyal just shrugged his shoulders. "It's fortunate that we don't have to understand their kinks, just exploit them."

"And Walker, I'm just going to throw it out there, but you're going to have to pretend to be one of them tonight. You might want to tone down the revulsion just a bit." Auggie suggested.

"I know that." She glared at him, ineffectively. "That's why I was hoping I could understand all of this better. Maybe if I could get some of the motivations I could connect with Sasha more easily."

"I'm pretty sure you're not the one that Joan intended to _connect_ with Sasha tonight." Auggie leered.

Eyal seemed suddenly uncomfortable, but didn't say anything.

"She doesn't actually expect us to sleep with these people." Annie defended with conviction. She looked back and forth between her two friends and found them both diverting their eyes. "Right?" She added, a little less convinced now.

"There's really only one reason to send a pair of operatives into a swinger club." Eyal finally responded quietly without making eye contact.

Annie was unable to hide her disgust. "Tell me you're not actually considering doing that?" She worried that it came out sounding as jealous as she felt when he lifted his gaze from the floor to meet hers.

The look in his eyes was pleading and apologetic. "We're being sent to turn this woman. I'll do whatever I have to to complete this mission. Like it or not, that's our job."

"Can you even turn an asset without sleeping with her?" Annie sneered at her partner. "From what I've seen, you're kind of a one trick pony." She hoped the teasing would camouflage her actual concern.

"I have other means of handling assets."

"That don't involve blunt force trauma?" She questioned.

"My repertoire may be limited, but it remains effective." He defended jokingly.

Annie barely forced a smile. Her mind was reeling and she was being overrun with at least a dozen different emotions at this new revelation of what she may actually be in for later that night. She had slept with a target exactly once in her career. Joan was well aware that that scenario had not ended particularly well. She couldn't imagine that her current boss actually intended for them to have sex with these people to get what they needed. That was Lena's style, not Joan's. But Lena had been right. It was no secret that the Agency had no qualms about putting male operatives in the position to use sex to turn assets. Is that why Joan had picked them? Rather had she picked Eyal for the mission and Annie was just stuck tagging along for the ride as his handler? The thought of having to watch and even play along as he took another woman to bed turned her stomach as violently as that Mexican grouper sandwich had the week before. She was fairly certain that she was actually beginning to have a panic attack.

"Earth to Walker?" Auggie interrupted her downward spiral.

"What?" She snapped back.

"Where did you just go?" He asked.

"I'm right here. I was just thinking about what I should wear tonight." She lied and hoped they wouldn't see through it.

"It's a swinger club." Eyal responded nonchalantly. "You should go home, open up your closet, ask yourself 'what in here looks the sluttiest?' and chose that." He went so far as to use a falsely high pitched voice for the part of the statement where she addressed the closet.

"Probably not a good idea." Auggie disagreed.

"Why not?" They both asked.

"Because you have to keep up your cover." Auggie glared in Eyal's general direction. "If you can't take your eyes off her, nobody in that place is going to believe you're there to hook up with other people."

"Then maybe you should pick out my outfit." Annie teased him.

"Actually, that's not a bad idea."

"You have got to be kidding." Eyal laughed.

"I'm serious." Auggie insisted. "We should both be there." He nudged Eyal's shoulder.

"That sounds like the opening line of a bad porno." Annie glared in the men's direction.

"He's got a point." Eyal added. "People are going to be watching us and judging us all night. Bring your things to my apartment this evening. We'll get ready together. It will make everything less awkward by the time we get to the club."

"And Auggie's invited because…" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

"To keep your cover this weekend, you're going to have to do God knows what with each other and the targets, and possibly in front of any combination of the above. If you two can't change clothes together in front of a blind guy without getting awkward, your cover's already blown."

Annie realized that they had a point, but it still just seemed creepy. Then again, everything about this mission was creepy to her. Why not try to get some of it out of the way sooner rather than later at the club when their actions would be scrutinized by a room full of people trying to find a way to get them into bed. "Fine." She grumbled her ascent.

"Well that's settled then." Eyal announced. "My apartment, seven o'clock?"

They all agreed and checked the clock. It was finally 4:55, so the trio disbanded to their respective desks and began shutting down computers for the weekend and preparing to leave the office. They all regrouped at the DPD door and walked through the building together.

"You didn't have anything better planned for this evening, did you?" Eyal asked Annie after they said goodbye to Auggie at the front entrance and continued on to the parking lot.

"Just to try to get in a quick run if the weather stays nice. I should still be able to squeeze one in."

"You do seem to enjoy your little jogs, don't you?" He smiled.

"We can't all stay as naturally fit as you." She bumped her shoulder into his intentionally. "You're welcome to join me."

"I think I'll go home and rest. Who knows if we'll be getting any sleep tonight." He wiggled an eyebrow at her suggestively. She shoved his shoulder and rolled her eyes before they parted ways to find their respective vehicles.

…

Annie knocked on Eyal's door at 6:58. He opened the door and found her standing there with a garment bag over one shoulder and a large duffel bag over the other. He quickly took the bags from her and stepped out of the doorway so she could enter.

"Oy gevalt Neshema!" He greeted her, "Did you bring everything you own?"

"Not nearly." She smiled back. "Seeing that the whole point of the evening was to pick what I should wear, I figured that I should bring options. And in retrospect we probably should have done this at my place."

He led them into the bedroom and placed the bags on the edge of the bed. Annie tried very hard to avoid looking at the bed. Even though she had slept in it for weeks, now that he had returned, it was all his. And standing that close to his bed, with him hovering over her was just a little much with all the thoughts running through her head on this particular night. Especially when he had obviously just gotten out of the shower. His hair was still damp, and his skin was moist and smelling like soap. He had thrown on a t shirt and jeans, likely for her benefit, but had not yet shaved or taken any other steps to prepare.

Annie opened the duffel and started pulling out a few items. Eyal's continued hovering just inside the limit of her personal space kept her slightly unnerved. "I should go shower." She nearly stuttered when she looked up at him.

He was staring down at her intensely, and she was sure that he was about to let slip some comment about how he should have waited to shower with her. He surprised her when he reached out and took her hand and began, "Annie, I wanted to talk to you before Auggie gets here."

"Ok." She couldn't hide the nerves in her voice and he realized it.

The nervous expression on his face quickly dropped to a soft smile. He let go of her hand and reached around to pull her into a hug. He still felt tense, and the friendly gesture didn't exactly calm her down any.

"Neshema, I have never seen you this nervous."

"It's this mission. And it doesn't really help that you're on edge too." She retorted.

He chuckled softly and she could feel him start to relax in her arms. She let her head rest on his shoulder and realized that she was beginning to unwind a bit as well.

"Everything about this mission is just so far outside my comfort zone." She finally admitted.

"Then it's a good thing I'll be there with you." He comforted.

"Given the nature of this mission, I'm not sure if that makes it better or worse." She leaned her head back and looked up into his eyes.

"Why do you think that is?" He asked cautiously. There was a glimmer of something resembling optimism or hope in his voice and in his eyes.

Was he really doing this to her now? Was he really trying to get her to admit her feelings for him out loud? She wasn't sure she could say it first, wasn't sure she was ready.

He picked up on her hesitation instantly. She registered the slightest disappointment in his eyes before he filled the silence. "Think of this like any other assignment. It's all acting for the sake of completing a mission. Nothing that happens tonight is going to change anything between us." He paused and lifted a hand to the side of her face. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before re-opening them and looking her in the eyes. "It doesn't change how I feel…"

He was interrupted by a fervent knock on his front door.

Eyal dropped his hand from her face and hung his head briefly before muttering, "Auggie." He stepped back, sighed, and looked at her again. "Is his timing always…"

"Yup." She answered. "I'm gonna go take that shower."

Eyal walked to the door and unlatched the deadbolt. He caught sight of his Sig sitting on the hallway table in his peripheral vision and briefly debated shooting the visitor on the other side of the door. Auggie's timing was a constant source of frustration in his life. He had probably killed men for less before. Unfortunately, Eyal knew that killing her best friend would probably put him on the outs with Annie, so he left the gun on the table and opened the door. In his mind he reserved the right to at least knee cap the guy if he interrupted any more intimate moments in the future.

"Auggie, come on in." He put a hand on the man's elbow and led him to the couch in the living room.

"Walker here yet?" He asked.

"She just stepped into the shower."

"And you're out here with me. Night's not off to a very good start for you, is it?"

"You could say that." Eyal mumbled.

"Would this help?" Auggie opened his bag and pulled out a bottle of tequila.

"Absolutely." Eyal smiled and patted Auggie on the shoulder as he walked into the kitchen to grab a few glasses.

Eyal liked the blind man. He was Annie's best friend and obviously also harbored deep feelings for her. A lesser man might have taken offense to Eyal's sudden butting in on his turf. Instead Auggie had embraced his arrival and presence in Annie's life. While Eyal thought that it would have been easy to be only jealous of an interloper such as himself, Auggie actually seemed happy to have someone to commiserate with over the trials and tribulations that defined Annie Walker's affections. Eyal respected him for that.

"Have you given any more thought to how far you're going to let this go tonight?" Auggie asked.

Eyal returned, handed Auggie a glass, and placed two on the coffee table. He poured a few ounces of the tequila into each and settled into the armchair. "I've decided not to decide." He announced. "I'll let her take point. She can call the shots and decide how far anything goes. I'm just there to have her back."

"Damn." Auggie sighed. "Handsome _and_ smart. Now I really am screwed." They both laughed a little.

"You've known her much longer than I have." Eyal asked, "How long do you think this getting ready is going to take?"

"Your guess is as good as mine." Auggie replied. "And it pains me to tell you this, because I'm sure you'll use it to your advantage at some point, but if you are looking at simple duration of acquaintance, I've only known her about three weeks longer than you have."

Eyal was shocked.

"That's a shocked silence if ever I've heard one." Auggie smiled.

"In Zurich I knew she was green, but only three weeks off the farm?"

"Actually, she hadn't even finished her training, officially. Joan pulled her for a specific mission before she finished her fire arms certification, and decided to keep her."

"That explains the gun issue." Eyal contemplated. "I suppose she was just blessed with a natural aptitude for spycraft."

"She's certainly not your typical field agent, but I think that's what makes her so good." Auggie mused.

They both sipped at the tequila for a while. Eventually Eyal turned on the television and they were able to catch the tip off of a college basketball game. A few minutes later they heard the shower cut off. A minute or two after that they heard a hair dryer turn on. They still had plenty of time, but Eyal was getting bored. There were other things he could have been doing in preparation for this mission. Instead he was entertaining his friend-slash-romantic rival while he waited for Annie to blow dry her hair. When had this become his life? He downed the rest of the tequila in his glass.

…

Annie stood in front of the mirror and took a few deep breaths. She had taken her time showering to attempt to calm her nerves. Despite the mid-sentence interruption, the conversation that Eyal had tried to have with her did make her feel a bit better. This was just their job. What they would do tonight would be no different than when actors walk out onto a set to film a risqué scene for a movie. It wasn't real and it wasn't them. She finished drying her hair and straightening it. Then she put on some make-up. This time she went with a smokey eye and a more muted lipstick. She pulled Eyal's robe, that she had commandeered after the shower, tightly around her and poked her head out the bathroom door into the bedroom. Fortunately it remained empty and the door leading to the living room closed. She could hear the sounds of a basketball game on the television and the occasional voices of her friends from the other side.

She stepped up to the door and called out through it, "Is that Auggie that I hear out there?"

"Your ears do not deceive you." He called back. "And I brought a little something to help take the edge off."

"Just tell me it's not tequila."

There was an extended pause before he responded in a less than confident voice, "It's not tequila."

A shot of tequila probably would have done some great things for her nerves, actually, but even the thought of the amber liquid conjured up the vivid sensory recall of vomiting in a hotel bathroom.

"So how much of this outfit do you guys need to approve?" She called out as she began sifting through the lingerie she had brought with her.

"All of it." Auggie yelled back.

"You seriously want me to walk out there in my underwear?" She knew what the answer was going to be, but she asked anyway.

Both men yelled back a synchronized "Yes."

She rolled her eyes. "Any suggestions?"

"If you guys get to the point where somebody's going to see it, it better be something you feel comfortable in. Go with your gut. We'll let you know what we think." She swore she could hear them giggling out there when Auggie had finished.

Her gut was telling her to go with something that she would feel sexy in. It might also be fun to blow Eyal's mind just a little. She knew exactly what to wear.

It was a set she had gotten from Victoria's Secret the previous fall, but hadn't had a chance to wear. She refused to let her mind even register that she had bought the lingerie while still seeing Simon and his untimely death was the reason it remained unworn. Tonight she had more on her mind than getting depressed about a past she could not change. She shimmied into the short black lace and silver accented bustier that incorporated a push up bra and stopped just below her ribs. She slid the side zipper all the way down and admired what it did for her figure. Then she pulled on the matching lace low rise micro-mini skirt/thong/garter belt combination. Lastly, she slipped her legs into a pair of black lace topped thigh highs and connected them to the garter belt. She pulled on the black Manolo Blahnik pumps that would match the skirt she planned to wear over the lingerie and took a look in the mirror. She ran her fingers through her hair a few times, but felt like something was still missing. Then she spotted her necklace sitting on the counter where she had placed it while she took her shower. She slipped it over her neck and let the old key dangle just below the swell of her breasts. It matched the look perfectly and she couldn't help but feel that Simon's old key hanging from the new chain Eyal had given her was a nice homage to the original intent of the outfit and its new repurposing.

She took another deep breath and let her new-found confidence take over. It was like Auggie had said earlier. If she couldn't walk around in her underwear in front of the two men she trusted most in this world, she had no business stepping foot into that club tonight.

…

Auggie seemed a bit more excited for the lingerie fashion show than Eyal, which he felt was odd since it wasn't like the man next to him was even going to see any of it. Eyal wasn't about to turn down a chance to see Annie in any state of undress, but he was realistic about it. Odds were high that whatever simple bra and panty set she chose to wear would probably actually cover more skin than the bikini he had seen her running around in all afternoon last week. Would she still look amazing, of course, but of all the things that could happen tonight, this was not the event that was going to make him lose his cool.

He heard Annie yell through the door again, "Alright. I'm coming out. You'll be honest about if this looks ok, right?"

"Sure you don't want a shot first to take the edge off?" Auggie offered.

"Keep that tequila away from me. Just let me do this before I lose my nerve."

Just as the sound of the doorknob turning registered, Auggie shot out his hand and grabbed Eyal's wrist. Eyal was about to say something about it, but then the movement in the bedroom doorway caught his eye. As Annie stepped into view he couldn't have said anything if he'd wanted to. He had lost all ability to speak. He also couldn't breathe, and he was certain his heart was about to either seize or explode, he wasn't quite sure which. She had made eye contact with him as soon as the door had opened and had kept her eyes trained on him the entire time, He had been unable to keep his eyes from moving up and down over her form in reverence, but eventually they met hers again and locked. Whatever her insecurities earlier in the night, she had obviously worked something out because she stood in front of him, slack jawed leering and all, completely poised an confident - the Annie Walker he had always known.

"Hot damn Walker!" Auggie announced eagerly.

She rolled her eyes at him. "No offense Auggie, but that doesn't exactly mean much coming from you right now. You have no idea what I'm wearing."

"That may be true," then he held up Eyal's wrist and they all now realized that he had his fingers on the other man's pulse, " But I do know that his heart rate just jumped about 60 beats per minute and his pulse feels like his blood pressure probably just spiked about thirty points. I'm guessing you look smokin' hot."

Eyal shook off the other man's grip and looked slightly embarrassed.

Annie smiled, looking pleased with herself. "Well I hope so, and thank you."

Eyal was just thinking that he might have regained his power of speech when she started walking towards him. For a moment he thought she was about to crawl into his lap, which would have absolutely ended him, but instead she perched herself on the arm of the over-stuffed chair he was sitting in. She slowly crossed her legs, making the little so-short-it-really-shouldn't-even-be-considered-a-skirt rise even higher up her thighs. Then she leaned forward and all he could see was the necklace he had bought for her cascading down the cleavage the bustier had enhanced.

"So you're being awfully quiet." She looked at her partner. "Do you think this will work, or should I try something else?"

He had no idea how she was staying so calm. She might as well have been sitting there in sweats, as relaxed as she seemed. He forced himself to take a deep breath and mentally chastised himself for getting this out of control. If she could do this, so could he. "I think that will do." It came out as nonchalant as he had hoped it would.

"Good. That means it's your turn." She put a hand on his back and gave him a little shove forward out of the chair.

"Fine. But are you done in the bathroom? I need to shave."

"Don't!" She blurted out. "At least let me see how it looks with whatever you're going to wear. Right now it's giving you this… rugged charm."

He rolled his eyes at her, unconvinced, and retreated into the bedroom.

Annie got up from the chair and sat down on the couch next to Auggie.

"I had my doubts, but I think this really was a good idea." She smiled at him.

"And here I thought we were just being a couple of pervy guys abusing an opportunity to see a hot woman in her underwear."

Annie shoved his shoulder slightly.

"But there is something I wanted to talk to you about before he gets back." Auggie leaned in and spoke in a subdued voice.

"Ok."

"I heard some things today around Langley."

"What kind of things?" She questioned.

"Just some whispers out of Arthur's office. It sounds like he's making some discreet inquiries into options for alternative uses for Eyal in case you two can't work together."

"What!" Annie barely contained her rage. "We work together just fine. There hasn't been a single problem. Why are they doing this?"

"Nothing is in action yet, but it sounded like they will be watching how you two handle yourselves on this mission very closely."

"So if something goes wrong tonight, it's all over?"

"I don't know anything for certain, but I get the impression that they are concerned that you two are too close to each other to objectively handle certain situations in the field."

"And that's not at all ironic coming from Arthur Campbell." She spat.

"I'm not saying I agree with it." Auggie attempted to calm her down, "I just wanted you to know what you're up against. The best thing you can do tonight is stay focused. Make contact, turn this asset, and get the details to catch the FSB operative and stop the information leak. They can't argue with results."

"Then I'll give them results." The determination in her voice was almost palpable.

"That's my girl." Auggie smiled and moved to put a hand on her knee in what was intended to be friendly gesture of support, but his aim was slightly off and the hand ended up around mid-thigh. Then they both became acutely aware of what she was wearing.

"Thigh highs?" He asked.

"Yeah." She responded a little bashfully.

"Garter belt?"

"Maybe…"

He downed the rest of the tequila in his glass in a single swallow. "Go easy on him tonight." Auggie moved his hand to her shoulder and patted it reassuringly.

Just then Eyal walked out of the bedroom wearing a black pair of nicely fitted slacks and buttoning up a black dress shirt over his bare chest. "Is the black shirt too much?" He asked and raised his eyes to take in the scene. He saw Annie sitting on the couch next to Auggie, and briefly caught a glimpse of him moving his hand from her thigh to her shoulder. She was smiling demurely and Auggie looked just a little bit too happy about the predicament.

Annie noticed the flash of jealousy in his eyes and realized how her position with Auggie must have looked. She also didn't miss the instinctual darting of his eyes from the offending scene to the hallway table where his gun sat. When he looked back at her she smiled and slightly shook her head side to side at him. She hoped he could reign in his jealous and overly protective nature for at least the night. It sounded like their partnership depended on it. She stood and walked up to him.

"I like it. It looks very Johnny Cash." She smiled up at him and fastened the last two buttons for him. "And definitely leave the stubble." She ran a hand softly along his cheek then patted his chest.

"Auggie?" He asked for the other man's opinion.

"I know that tone of voice. You do whatever she says." He laughed.

"And hey!" Annie suddenly looked put out. "You're fully clothed. How come you didn't have to parade around out here in your underwear?"

He leaned in and whispered in her ear, "Because I'm not wearing any."

"Oh." She blushed slightly as he pulled back and smiled at her. "I guess I should finish getting dressed then."

"Or not. It's your choice really." He smiled at her.

She rolled her eyes and walked back into the bedroom. She opened the garment bag and pulled out a deep teal colored sleeveless cowl neck blouse. She tucked it into a high waisted black skirt that hugged her curves and stopped just above her knees. It was sophisticated but sexy. She left the key safely tucked between the shirt and the bustier so that only a portion of the chain showed. Then she touched up her make-up, ran a brush through her hair one more time, and gathered her things. She walked into the living room carrying her bags and quickly dumped them near the front door. Then she turned to the two men, held her hands up and spun around slowly for their inspection. "Acceptable?" She asked.

"You're gonna have to help me out on this one." Auggie looked to Eyal.

"I'm no help." He admitted. "She could be wearing a burlap sack and it would still look sexy because I know what's underneath."

Annie gave Eyal a little half smile and briefly described the outfit to Auggie.

"So kinda like what you'd wear to work but a little tighter and with a little more cleavage?" He asked.

"Exactly." She smiled at her friend.

"That should do it." He replied

"Then it looks like it's time to get this show on the road." She suggested.

They pulled on their coats, turned off the lights, and headed out the door together. Eyal drove and they had agreed to drop Auggie back at his apartment on their way to the club. While all three of them were still together they reviewed the case file.

"So we believe that Sofiya, the new girlfriend is really an FSB operative." Annie recited.

"The stolen tech info began appearing almost immediately after she came onto the scene, so it's a pretty safe bet." Auggie confirmed.

"Plus look at her and look at him. She has to be working him for something. No way a woman like that ends up with a man like him." Eyal added.

"What we don't know," Annie continued, "Is if the target, Phil, is a willing participant in the espionage or if she is gaining access to his work without his knowledge."

"With the amount of security clearances and safeguards in place to protect that data, it's hard to believe that a woman that spends two nights a week with him could gain access without his help." Auggie supplied.

"But we have seen it before." She gave Eyal a pointed glance.

"And that's why we're trying to turn girlfriend number one. So that we can have the access to find out." He responded.

"And that's who we are approaching tonight. The file says that Phil usually spends Friday nights with Sofiya, then the rest of the weekend with Sasha. If we can get to Sasha tonight, then it will give us fourty-eight hours to get everything we need on Phil before Sofiya finds out we're onto her." Annie filled in.

"What intel do we have on the players on a personal level?" Eyal asked.

Auggie retrieved the brail file from his messenger bag and began to summarize. "Sasha Tester is thirty-eight, grew up in the Williamsburg area and divorced from an abusive seven month long marriage when she was twenty. It appears she was introduced to 'The Lifestyle' a few years later by a boyfriend with an adventurous side. After a few months she ditched the boyfriend, but kept the new hobby. She's been a regular on the scene pretty much from that point on. She keeps an apartment of her own near Dupont circle that she shares with a platonic roommate and an aging cat. She works as a dental assistant for a small family owned orthodontics practice in DC, where her co-workers describe her as hard working and nice enough, but with a tendency to go a little overboard on the explicit TMI."

"So if she weren't a swinger, she'd be a giant nobody." Eyal summarized.

"Precisely." Auggie continued. "About seven years ago she began playing a recurring role in the sex life of one Phillip Reed, a now 42 year old engineer that owns his own tech firm and frequently contracts out to the military industrial complex. He had two girlfriends when he met Sasha, but eventually ditched both of them to take up with her as a full time partner just over six years ago. Together they've made quite a name for themselves and are considered to be nearly royalty in the DC swinger community."

"But it sounds like there's trouble in paradise." Annie commented.

"Right you are." Auggie smiled at her. "About three months ago Sasha and Phil broke their tradition of exclusively swapping with other couples and brought the solo Sofiya Kravic home with them for a little ménage a trois. At twenty-four years old she may have aged out of the modeling scene in her homeland of the Ukraine, but Phil doesn't seem to mind. A few weeks later word got out that he had taken her as a second girlfriend."

Eyal questioned, "But he remains with Sasha as well. Do we know why?"

"Or why she stays with his big lovin' polygamist ass?" Annie added.

"The motivations behind that relationship remain a mystery. Sofiya's motivations, however, are a bit clearer." Auggie finished. "Almost immediately after she and Phil sealed the deal, an FSB operative was detained overseas in possession of specs from Phil's company's most recent DOD contract project."

"Wouldn't be the first time an agency used washed up models to seduce foreign targets." Eyal shrugged.

Annie didn't seem that impressed. "Not very original. Or subtle."

"But apparently still effective." Eyal sounded a bit sarcastic with his remark.

"What this tells me," Annie began, "Is that Sasha is still in love with Phil. No matter what she says or what their anti-monogamist hobbies might include, she can't be happy about Phil taking a new girlfriend after six years of being his one and only. Since the one time they broke their routine of both swapping with partners from another couple is when she ended up getting hit with this new complication in her relationship, I doubt she's going to break from that routine again."

"Meaning?" Eyal asked.

"Sorry to rain on your parade partner, but since she's going to be solo tonight there's probably no chance that anything will happen until Phil joins her tomorrow."

"So the focus of tonight is ensuring that we are the couple that gets the invite for tomorrow night's private party." Eyal smiled.

Annie wasn't sure, but she could have sworn he sounded slightly relieved. She certainly felt relief at the realization that the odds were not in the favor of having to be the third wheel while Eyal seduced another woman tonight. Now all they had to do was get Sasha to take them to Phil tomorrow night. More than likely they could get whatever information they needed out of Phil to determine if he was a willing participant in the classified info dissemination long before any clothes started coming off. She added, "Once we can get to Phil, we find out if he really doesn't know what is going on. If not, we can read him in and use him to help catch Sofiya. If he is part of it, he's headed for federal prison, and Sofiya isn't far behind. The secret is keeping her out of the loop just long enough to spring the trap on her."

"That means absolutely maintaining out cover until we know his level of involvement and can set up a trap for his handler." Eyal eyed Annie incredulously.

"Which brings us to your cover story." Auggie chimed in. "Tonight you are Alexis and George, transplants from New York City where you had met Rhonda and Michael Stevens, who are your references for this evening. Entrance into the club requires a reference from a previous or current member couple. They were fairly popular in this scene and even swapped with our targets a few times before moving to NYC a few months ago. Details beyond that are up to you."

At that time the car approached Auggie's building and Eyal parked on the street in front.

"Anything else we need for tonight?" Annie asked as he started to get out.

"Yeah. Good luck." He answered with a smile and let the doorman help him towards the door.

It suddenly began to feel slightly awkward in the car with just the two of them. Annie looked at the man on her left as he concentrated on driving through the downtown traffic. He seemed more tense than usual, but that wasn't really a surprise. If Joan had wanted to put them to a stress test, she'd found the perfect mission. While she really hoped that her insights into Sasha's mindset would be accurate, there was no guarantee that something untoward wouldn't still happen tonight. She wasn't sure she could handle it, but she didn't have any options. She knew that if she wanted him to stay as her partner, as part of her daily life, all of this was going to have to go smoothly. That meant she would have to do the one thing she had never quite seemed to be able to do in the past – separate her personal feelings from the mission entirely. Separation of personal and professional feelings had proven time and time again to be her white whale. Tonight the mission and her partner, the person she probably had the strongest personal feelings for of anyone currently in her life, depended on her ability to do just that.

Eyal decided to break the silence. "So we are agreed? The purpose of making contact with the asset tonight is to ensure that she provides us access to the target tomorrow. We will maintain our cover and we will not be reading her in on this."

"Agreed. I can't get a good read on Sasha. Her motivations and allegiances are just too unclear to trust her."

"I'm glad to see that you are starting to be a little more conservative in whom you will place your trust." Eyal shot a sideways glance and smile at her.

"You could say I learned my lesson with Megan." Annie admitted. "An asset in love can be unpredictable. As important as this mission is, we can't leave it up to chance."

"So tonight we are Alexis and George, swinger couple. No matter what?"

"No matter what." She confirmed. She convinced herself of it as she said the words. She gave it a moment for everything to sink in, then asked, "So why is it always 'George'? I hear George and think of Costanza, who you totally do not remind me of."

Eyal smiled at the Seinfeld reference. "Do you promise not to laugh?"

"If you have to preface this explanation with that question, absolutely not." She grinned.

"I know it's a bit before your time," He started mock-condescendingly, "but when I was growing up in the seventies there was this movie called Star Wars."

"Really? I've never heard of it. Did you have to ride your dinosaur to the theater to see it?" She smirked.

"Excellent. You're teasing me about my age. This will undoubtedly end well." He huffed.

"You started it."

"Very mature."

She stuck her tongue out at him. He rolled his eyes.

"Never mind. If that's the way you are going to be…"

"No, go ahead. As you were saying - long long ago in a galaxy far far away…"

He rolled his eyes at her again. "As a child, the most remarkable thing about that movie wasn't the special effects or the extraterrestrial creatures, it was the fact that the story telling was so good, that for two hours every single person in that theater was willing to forget what they knew to be true and they became willing to believe in space travel and epic intergalactic battles. So, when I go out into the field on a mission that depends on me being able to convince a target to believe me instead of what they have always known to be true or right, I think of that movie. I think that if one man could tell a story so well that he made millions of people believe in Ewoks, it can't be that hard to make one single target believe what it is I need them to believe to complete my mission."

"So it's Lucas, not Costanza."

"Not Costanza." He confirmed with a slight smile.

She smiled back at him, and she internally marveled at the contradiction that he represented. On paper and by all outward appearances he was a stone cold assassin with a short temper and unmatchable skills in deception. Yet, ever since their first meeting in Zurich, what she had found most interesting about the man wasn't his exceptional skill set as an operative, but those rare instances when this very unexpected sentimentality would manage to shine through. She wondered how many people ever got to see that side of him. She wondered how she was supposed to look at him tonight and pretend she didn't see it.

About two feet, and an entire world of thought away, Eyal was busy wondering why he could never stop himself from telling her these things. Since telling her about the missed ferry that led to their meeting in Zurich, to showing her his son that most of Mossad didn't even know about, to all these silly embarrassing stories, he had always felt the need to show more of himself to her than to anyone he had ever met before. He knew it was likely because of how deeply his feelings for her ran, and he wasn't about to attempt to deceive himself into thinking otherwise. He just wished, that for once, he could treat her the way he treated everyone else he worked with and every other mission. But he supposed if he could do that, he wouldn't be in the position that he would need to.

Eyal sighed and pulled up to the curb. They were there. They both simultaneously took a deep breath and put on their game faces. The valet quickly took Eyal's place in the driver's seat as he walked around the car and opened the door for her. She accepted his hand and she stepped out of the sedan. Once standing together on the sidewalk she took his arm and they walked to the door. Part of her mind focused on holding his arm, smiling just enough, sucking in her stomach and sticking out her chest - all the typical feminine appearance concerns. The other part of her mind scanned the street, cataloguing the faces she saw entering and around the building, noting where the valets kept the keys, and determining the most and least visible entrance and exit points from the building – all the typical spy concerns. The building was a renovated civil war era tobacco warehouse proudly displaying the name "Tabu" in neon above the door. As they approached the door, an imposing man and a provocatively dressed woman with a tablet greeted them.

"Welcome to Tabu. Tonight is a private event, so I need to ask if you are already on our list or are accompanying one of our members."

Annie answered with an intriguing smile. "I believe we were put on the list already by our friends the Stevens, Rhonda and Michael."

"Alexis and George is it?" The hostess asked after a few flicks of her finger on the touch screen.

Eyal smiled and raised his eyebrows in confirmation. Annie kept up the pleasantries. "That's us."

"I see this is your first time here at Tabu. Please allow me to show you in and introduce you to some of our members." The hostess smiled and ushered them into the club.

The interior was dimly lit yet more upscale than the average night club. A large bar lined the majority of one wall. There was an area set aside as a small dance floor, but it remained empty. Most people were either at the bar or congregating around the many booths or casual seating areas lining the perimeter of the room or the small tables scattered throughout. The music was not nearly to the decibel level of most clubs and the emphasis seemed to be on interacting and socializing between the couples.

"Tabu is what we call an 'off site' club. While we are pleased to be able to introduce couples looking to share experiences, we do require that such experiences take place at another location. Also, we do understand the sensitive nature of public opinion surrounding The Lifestyle, especially in such a politically charged area as this. Some of our members may use pseudonyms to protect their identity, especially when interacting with guests. We hope that you do not take offense to this small measure of maintaining privacy."

"Quite understandable." Eyal answered.

They hadn't finished more than half a lap around the open space before a couple approached them. The woman was petite, in her early thirties, with dark auburn hair and a pale complexion, while her partner was of a similar age, average height and build, and had medium length slightly wavy dark blonde hair.

"Alexis, George, this is Claire and her husband Bill. They are some of our regulars and an excellent choice if you are new to The Lifestyle."

Claire smiled flirtatiously at Eyal and Bill took Annie's hand from Eyal's arm and kissed the back of it.

"What a pleasure to make your acquaintance." Eyal purred.

Annie was busy trying to seem attentive to her suitor but also continued scanning faces in the crowd looking for their target. She hadn't seen Sasha yet and hoped she was in one of the groups over near the bar in the part of the club they hadn't cycled through yet.

"Why don't we go over to the bar and all have a drink together? Get to know each other." Annie suggested excitedly.

"Please allow us to buy you your first drink of the night." Bill grinned and took Annie's arm.

"It'll be the first drink for me, but someone decided to have a drink or two earlier while I was getting ready." Annie giggled and unexpectedly gave Eyal's back side a little squeeze.

"They just don't understand what goes into preparing for a night like this." Claire winked at Annie. She put an arm around Eyal's waist and let her hand dip notably south of the border as they all walked towards the bar.

As they approached the bar Annie thought she caught a glimpse of Sasha amidst a crowd a few booths away. All it took was a few nearly imperceptible shifts in her shoulder posture and eye movements in the general direction for Eyal to get the hint and take a look on his own. A subtle tip of his chin was all the conformation she needed. She made sure to position them at the bar such that Eyal was in the best line of sight possible. If she wanted Sasha to come to them, they'd have to put out some bait.

They made small talk with Claire and Bill for a little while before their bait started to become just a little too attractive. The next fourty-five minutes were a barrage of flirty couples. There was Sandy and Rob the real estate agents, Elaine and Chuck the slightly overweight couple, Tara and Mark who seemed to just want to borrow Annie for the night, Linda who seemed to have very little interest in finding new partners and her husband Weston who didn't seem to notice or care about his wife's disinterest, and Kyli and James who were just a little too forward and hands-y. About the only person in the bar that didn't come over to investigate the new couple was Sasha.

Annie excused herself briefly to go to the ladies' room and temporarily escape what seemed like a never-ending bizarre-o episode of the bachelor. The way things were going so far hadn't been that bad at all. The night was actually going well so far. Sure Eyal was flirty with the other women, and some of them were a little more hands-on than she would have liked, but it was all just acting. She almost felt bad for all these naïve women that actually thought they might have a chance. And it was fun to work a room with Eyal again. They hadn't been in a crowd situation together in ages. There was something infinitely reassuring about going into the field and knowing that you weren't alone, that you were with someone you unquestioningly trusted to have your back. She contemplated how she had become so quickly accustomed to having a partner and wondered what she would do when her role as Eyal's temporary handler was no longer necessary and he was allowed to start functioning independently. How would she go back to working alone after this? Then a small nagging voice in the back of her mind reminded her that if they didn't establish contact with Sasha and advance their plan for gaining access to Phil, that day when she has to work alone again might come sooner than she thinks.

While Annie had escaped to the seclusion of the women's rest room, Eyal used the opportunity to extract himself from the legion of amorous couples. He walked to the end of the bar closest to where Sasha had ensconced herself and saw that her entourage had diminished down to a single dark haired man wearing a black polo shirt that identified him as one of the club's bouncers. He seemed to be making a rather strong attempt to become intimate with her. He would run a hand through her hair, lean in a bit too close, and seemed to enjoy carefully playing with the rather gaudy looking gold charm bracelet she was wearing. Eyal didn't try to hide that he was watching her, and she soon noticed. She whispered something into her suitor's ear and he suddenly looked a little put-out. He stopped playing with her jewelry and abruptly got up and left. Eyal realized the opening for what it was, collected his scotch on the rocks from the bartender, and walked over.

"I noticed you noticing me." He said with machismo as he slid into the booth across from her.

"Well aren't you just overly confident." She said neutrally

"Hard not to be around here. I've lost count of the number of women that have wanted to take me home tonight." He countered boastfully.

"You're new and shiny, that tends to attract all sorts of attention."

"But you've had no shortage of attention yourself tonight, and I highly suspect that you are anything but new to this place."

"How very observant of you." Eyal could hear the difference in pitch of her voice. She had gone from disinterested to intrigued. After a brief pause, during which she seemed to be considering something, she added, "And you and your girl are quite evenly matched. That makes for a very appealing swap. You two should have no trouble finding a couple to break you into this gently. I see you already met Claire and Bill. They are notoriously easy on the newbies."

"Don't get me wrong. They seemed nice enough, but…" Eyal started, but was interrupted as Annie appeared, slid into the booth at his side, and took a long sip from his drink.

"…but we're not exactly interested in starting out with training wheels." Annie finished for him. Then she extended her hand across the table in a polite gesture. "I'm Alexis. It's nice to meet you."

"Sasha." She shook Annie's hand and slightly smiled for the first time in the conversation. "So what made you two decide that tonight was the night to come out to this club and try out The Lifestyle?"

Annie answered. "It's the first weekend since we moved down here that we are really settled in enough to start going out. We've been looking forward to trying it out since we left New York."

"But you two weren't active in the scene up there?" She asked.

"We'd never really considered it." Eyal responded. "We'd never been exposed to it and with all the stereotypes…"

"Until we met Rhonda and Michael the night before we left town." Annie finished.

"So you met the Stevens." Sasha grinned. "They were an adventurous couple. I was sad to see them have to move for Michael's job. How did you run into them?"

"It was a very random chance meeting at a restaurant bar while we were waiting for our tables." Annie began to divulge their agreed upon cover story. "Michael kind of caught my eye from across the bar and I didn't even realize it, but George here…" she nudged Eyal with an elbow. "…had an eye on Rhonda nearly since we walked in. They actually approached us and introduced themselves. It was a little embarrassing at first, but we started talking and ended up having dinner together. They were not at all what we would have expected when people talk about swingers. We had been packing all day and our apartment was a mess, so we were in no position to really do anything that night, but they told us about this place for once we got down here to DC."

"So you two are looking for another couple, not some unicorn to take home with you for the night." Sasha seemed relieved.

"Unicorn?" Eyal asked.

"It's what we call single women in The Lifestyle. They are highly sought after, but they're so rare that you always hear about them but never actually see one." Sasha informed them.

"Cute." Eyal responded.

"We want this to be something we try together, so yes, we are looking for a couple." Annie supplied, paused, then added, "So you're not a unicorn, right? Which one is your guy?" Annie looked around the club.

"No." Sasha answered. "I'm with someone, he just couldn't make it tonight." Then her tone turned a little sour. "Phil's taken up a new little hobby that keeps him busy on Friday nights."

"Well good for you!" Annie cheered. "You don't let whatever lame thing he's doing tonight stop you from getting out and enjoying yourself. That's admirable."

Sasha's more pleasant demeanor returned at the comment. "I try. And it does give me a good opportunity to get to know new people that we might be interested in spending time with. I seem to be a much better judge of character than he is lately."

Annie worked very hard not to let any tension or excitement show at Sasha's statement. It sounded like they were getting close to getting an invitation for tomorrow night and that Sasha already has some misgivings about Sofiya. Maybe she knows or has seen something.

"So what makes you interested in a new couple enough to decide that you might want to spend more time with them?" Eyal asked smoothly.

"He doesn't waste much time, does he?" Sasha smiled at Annie.

Annie smiled broadly, remembering all the times she had made a similar comment to him about his forwardness. "You could say that."

"I like you." Sasha said to Annie. "I've learned recently to almost be more picky about who Phil will be with than who I will be." Then she turned to Eyal. "But you're direct, and I like your attentiveness. Both qualities that are very fortunate for me in a more private setting."

Annie's brain split between imagining what it would be like to be the object of Eyal's direct attentiveness in the bedroom and a disturbing image of the woman across the table from her getting to find out. Before she could outwardly react to the two warring mental images in her head, she saw Eyal smirk at the woman across from him, but also felt a reassuring hand placed discretely on her leg under the table, telling her to calm down and not to worry.

"If you two are interested in doing some partying tomorrow night," Sasha asked calmly, "I think we could potentially arrange something."

"Potentially?" Eyal questioned.

"Since Phil's attentions have recently become divided, I like to make sure that the time we do get to spend together is put to its best use. Since I don't know you two, I hope you wouldn't be too offended if I asked that you give me a little bit of… let's call it an audition… for tomorrow night's starring role."

Annie's chest constricted. She hadn't seen this coming. What was this woman going to want? "What kind of audition are we talking about?" She tried to sound intrigued and aroused but wasn't sure she sold it.

"Don't worry honey. Threesomes really aren't my thing." Sasha smiled and toyed with the bracelet on her left wrist in what looked like a nervous habit. "But I would like to see what kind of tricks you two have up your sleeves. Phil keeps a small studio just up the street for when we don't want to go all the way back to his place after a night out here. If you are serious about this, we should head over that way and you can show me what you've got. I'll just observe. You can take it as far as you want, but I need to be convinced that it will be worth my while to bring you home tomorrow night."

As Sasha had outlined her request, Eyal had decided to focus on the rather ugly bracelet the woman fidgeted with as a way to hide any outward signs of his emotions on the topic. He tried to identify each of the five charms dangling from the gold chain. There was a cat, obviously a reference to the pet Auggie had mentioned earlier, a tooth , he hoped it was just a slightly disturbing nod to her occupation, a heart, a key, and a large slightly rectangular cube charm that he finally recognized as an ugly looking lock, probably meant to match the key. He wasn't sure that he'd ever seen a more odious piece of jewelry. He felt like the absurdity of the piece matched the request its owner was making of them.

Annie, on the other hand had been paying rapt attention to every word out of Sasha's mouth. She tried desperately to release the breath she had been holding in a controlled manner that wouldn't betray her relief. Sasha just wanted to see her with Eyal. That didn't seem so bad compared to the alternatives.

"You don't have a problem with somebody watching, do you?" Sasha was looking for a response now.

"We've never tried that before, but it sounds interesting." Annie answered.

"Your request is a little… different, but not unreasonable." Eyal addressed Sasha. "But since this is the first time for us with all of this, can we have a moment to discuss it all before we commit?"

"Absolutely. I need to go get a new drink any way. Just don't take too long to decide." Sasha slid out of the booth and walked towards the far end of the bar where the dark haired man from before seemed to be waiting for her.

Once they were alone Annie looked up at Eyal. "So we're doing this, right?"

"Are you sure you're ok with it?" He asked.

"What's not to be ok with? We go back to this apartment, let her watch us make out a bit, put on a show, and we're set to make contact with Phil tomorrow."

He gave her a look that was full of incredulity.

"It wouldn't be the first time we've fooled around." She whispered in his ear.

He smiled mischievously at the memory and then turned to whisper in her ear. "Perhaps I am slightly more cautious because I am the one that ended up getting shot at the end of that encounter."

She rolled her eyes at him. "Sasha is not going to shoot us."

"Fine." He acquiesced. "But I'm leaving how far this goes entirely up to you. I'll play along with whatever you want, but I'm warning you. This is going to get weird and messed up a lot faster than you are thinking."

"Come on, partner. It's you and me. It's already weird and messed up." She smiled and patted his chest before sliding out of the booth.

He sighed and followed her.

As they approached Sasha, the overly-attentive bouncer once again took notice. He was holding her left wrist and gently tracing a finger along her palm as she laughed at something he said into her ear. Again he instantly backed off and disappeared into the crowd with a slight nod at Annie and Eyal. Eyal supposed that he probably shouldn't have been getting that friendly with the clientele while on duty and was just showing some concern for his employment, but it was slightly odd. He took a little closer note of the man's descriptive features just in case.

"So are you in?" Sasha asked.

"All the way." Annie smiled.

Sasha finished the remaining half a glass of liquor in a single swallow and stood from the bar stool. "Then we should get on our way. That's something I share with you, George. I hate wasting time." She wrote something down on a bar napkin and handed it to Eyal. "I assume you drove? The valets lock up when the club closes, so it would probably be better to get your car out now. I'll meet you both at this address in fifteen minutes." Then she walked towards the door.

Annie and Eyal followed and collected their car from the valet. Eyal held the door for her before tipping the valet and getting into the driver's seat himself. As they drove the two blocks down the street to the overnight public parking, he became slightly concerned that she didn't seem as concerned as he was.

"You seem a little too excited about this." His voice started off concerned but quickly turned sarcastic. "I had no idea you wanted to get me into bed this badly."

They both laughed a little and it broke the tension. "I'm just glad that out of all the twisted things she could have suggested for tonight, this is all that we're going to be subjected to. I mean, could you really have kept our cover if she had suggested we go have a threesome?"

"I'll pretend that you didn't just refer to making out with me as something that you are going to be _subjected_ to, like water-boarding or sensory deprivation." Eyal smiled at her. "Though I will admit that there are numerous scenarios she could have suggested that I would not have been willing to engage in with you here with me."

"You mean what you'd be willing to do tonight would be different if I weren't here?" Annie was a little confused and a little disgusted.

"Let's just say that what I'm willing to subject myself to in the name of completing this mission and what I'm willing to subject you to are two completely different standards."

She still looked upset. "I don't need you to protect me."

He was a little annoyed at her stubbornness. "I can think of a half dozen times that say differently. Zurich, Paris, Russia…" He began to tick off.

Annie was getting frustrated. She had needed him to be focused on this mission. What if Arthur was right and they couldn't work through these types of situations together? What if they really were too close to stay partners?

While he wasn't sure where it was coming from, he could sense her mounting desperation. He wasn't going to fight with her. Not over this "When we are in the field together, you are my partner. That means something Annie. That means that I put keeping you safe above my own safety, above the mission even. It changes the game. That's why this so rarely works in our line of work."

"But you can't." Annie blurted reflexively. "The mission, this mission has to be your priority." She hated having the crucial piece of knowledge about his potential fate with the CIA that he didn't.

"No matter how important the mission or what is at stake, there are some lines that I just am not willing to cross when it comes to you. If you doubt my sincerity on this particular topic, I believe Rivka can attest to it."

Annie had always known. He had never come out and said it directly, but she knew that she was the reason he had quit Mossad. He had given up his country for her. How was she supposed to convince him that he needed to forget all that, or at least put it aside when they were in the field. How was she supposed to convince him to do it when she couldn't do it herself.

"So what happens when it comes down to crossing that line or compromising the mission?" She asked.

"I am confident that you and I can always find an alternative."

"What if there is no alternative?"

"Annie, where is this coming from?" He couldn't figure out what was driving her end of the conversation.

She fought with herself for a long moment while he pulled into the parking structure and began scanning for spots. Should she tell him? Would it make things better or worse if he also knew that their partnership hinged on this mission? In the end, she simply couldn't keep it from him.

"Arthur's got concerns that our feelings for each other are going to get in the way of our missions. He's started looking into which departments he can reassign you to."

He chuckled and visibly relaxed as he pulled into a parking spot. "This is nothing new. He told me that was their biggest concern before they brought me into the agency. He started trying to figure out what else he could do with me before the ink was dry on my paperwork."

"And it doesn't make you nervous that they are just looking for a reason to separate us? That if they do, we might never see each other again?"

He turned off the car's engine and focused his attention on her. "Not in the slightest, and I will tell you why. It is the same reason I gave Arthur that day. Whether that's what they were calling us or not, we have been working as partners for three years now. No one had to order us to work together, or told us that we could trust each other. We just have. Ever since Zurich. And we have never failed. With no backing and no support we have always accomplished our missions together. Now we have resources, the support of our agency, and no secrets from each other. We can only do better as we get closer."

"You're not afraid that closeness will make some things harder for us?"

"Like this mission?" He asked knowingly.

"Yeah." She admitted begrudgingly.

"Absolutely not." He was confident.

"I'll be honest. I'm having a much harder time with this than I would have back when we were in Zurich."

"I know." He smiled proudly at her. "I've known from the minute Joan gave us this assignment what our biggest problem was going to be."

"And what's that?" She asked unbelievingly.

He looked at her with a softness and sincerity that she hadn't seen from him all night. "Your worst fear is that you are going to have to stay in cover and watch me be with this woman. You don't think you can do it."

"How do you…"

"Because my first thought the minute Joan said the word 'swingers' was that I would rather take another bullet to the chest or be dead center of another unplanned explosion than to have to watch this target have his way with you."

"Oh."

"So while you've been worrying yourself sick, I've been planning a number of different contingencies to avoid getting into one of those situations." He smiled at her.

"So the moral of this story is that next time I should probably just talk to you." She gave him a small apologetic smile.

"I'm your partner. I should be the first person you come to if you have concerns about your feelings." She gave him a raised eyebrow look and he continued. "Regarding the mission of course."

They smiled at each other knowingly and got out of the car. He walked around ad took her arm. They walked a few paces before he leaned in and spoke softly into her ear. "Or if you have any other feelings or needs that I might be able to help you do something about, you should probably still come to me first."

She laughed out loud and bumped his shoulder with hers. How was it that he could turn any situation into sexual innuendo? It was truly a gift. She felt confident and maybe just a little excited as they walked together towards the building on the napkin. During their little talk in the car they hadn't actually admitted their feelings for each other, but they had tap danced around them enough to make each other confident enough that their feelings were reciprocated. However, once they got into the building and reached the elevator she began to feel a little concerned. Instead of internalizing, she was going to do exactly as he'd recommended.

As the elevator doors closed with just the two of them in the car she turned to him. "I'm nervous. What if we can't convince her that we'll be good enough to warrant swapping tomorrow night?"

"That is the last thing you will have to worry about." He nearly laughed at her.

"But what if I get nervous and we seem awkward?"

"If you feel yourself getting nervous or it gets awkward with her there, just look at me. Look in my eyes and you'll know that I'm right there with you. You are not alone in this, and you have all the control. I will back you wherever you want to take this."

She smiled and rolled her eyes at him playfully before admitting. "Ok. Maybe talking to you does really help."

Then the elevator reached their floor and they stepped out. They found the appropriate door and knocked. Sasha appeared a moment later and showed them in. She took their coats and hung them near the door. The studio was small and definitely gave off the feeling of a sex pad. The floor plan was entirely open and the bed took up a large portion of one corner. There were sparse decorations and nothing personal. The whole set up was so tacky that Annie had to work not to allow a giggle to slip out. There were candles lit around the space to add some ambiance to the dim lighting, smooth jazz was playing from a stereo system on the far side of the room, and Annie was pretty sure those were silk sheets on the bed. She felt like she had just stepped into the Playboy Mansion in miniature. A quick glimpse at Eyal let her know that he was likely thinking the same thing.

"Would you like something to drink?" Sasha asked holding up a wine bottle in one hand and a half filled glass in the other.

"I think we're good." Annie answered. "How do you want us to start this off?"

"Eager to get at each other, are we?" She smiled. "Don't let me stop you. Just pretend I'm not here and have each other like you usually would.

Eyal opened his mouth to say something but Annie cut him off. "I'm pretty sure she doesn't mean usual like our usual quickie after SportsCenter before you pass out for the night."

Sasha laughed a little and Annie smiled, preparing to make a little more small talk, when Eyal's mouth suddenly crashed down on hers. It was unexpected and her instinctual shock made her open her eyes and look to his. He had his back to Sasha and pointedly held Annie's eye contact in an attempt to reassure her. After a few seconds she relaxed and felt him do the same slightly. They deepened the kiss and she pulled him close to her. He started with a hand on the base of her neck and on the small of her back while she slid hers up under his arms and gripped his shoulders. Then she moved a hand to his cheek and slowly started backing them up towards the bed and changed the angle to give Sasha a better view. Then she raked her nails down his back and felt him nearly growl into her mouth.

He pushed her back against the wall before they could make it to the bed and pulled her shirt over her head. Then he was against her again and began to trail kisses along her collar bone and the base of her neck.

She knew enough of Eyal and the way his body felt to know that, despite the show, he was still completely restrained and in control. It almost felt like he was only partly present in the moment, like he was probably dissociating somewhat. But he could still put on quite an act. She wondered if this is what it was like for him all the times Mossad sent him to seduce and turn unsuspecting assets that he had no actual interest in. Had any of them been able to tell that at least part of his mind was somewhere else? She looked over his shoulder as he kissed the base of her neck, to check on Sasha. They both may have been phoning it in, but Sasha sure seemed to be buying it. She sat in a nearby armchair staring, sipping her wine and crossing her legs so hard in made Annie sore. This would be easy.

Annie wrapped one of her legs around Eyal's as he continued to pin her against the wall. Then she slowly drew the toe of her shoe up along the inside of his calf as high as the skirt would allow. He groaned, pulled her back from the wall, and moved his lips to her ear.

"Two can play that game." He ran his hands down over the curve of her backside and back up to her hips while sucking on her earlobe.

Annie was happy to see him engage in their activities a little more enthusiastically, though he remained in control. She made quick work of the buttons on his shirt and pulled it out from the hem of his pants. His hands moved to the zipper at the back of her skirt, but didn't move any further until he stole a glance at her face and made sure she gave him the go ahead with her eyes. She looked him straight in the eyes then moved to devour his mouth. Within two seconds the skirt was pooled around her ankles. She stepped out of it as she pushed his shirt back off his shoulders, and he let it fall to the ground. She repeated the maneuver from before, but this time she was able to trace the pointed toe of her shoe all the way up his inseam before hooking her knee around his waist. His neck arched backwards and he pushed his hips into her as a throaty moan escaped him. It was the first wholly organic response he'd given all night, and it excited her. While emotionally separating from the acts unfolding between them may have been his way of dealing with the situation, she found it easier to just lose herself in the acts and forget about everything else around them.

Then she heard Sasha start to make a few encouragements like "Oh yeah." and "Come on, yes!" Annie tried really hard not to pay attention, but she could tell that the voyeurism was uncomfortable for Eyal as well. She took a deep breath and remembered what they had agreed upon. She pulled back slightly and looked into his eyes. This time it seemed like they were reassuring each other, but it still worked.

She released her hold on him and took a few steps backwards towards the bed. When the back of her legs brushed against it she stopped. Eyal leaned in over her and ghosted her every move as she sat and slowly slid backwards onto the bed. He ran a hand along the length of her thigh and down her calf to her foot, removing the shoe as she moved further back. She kicked off the other one herself. They were smiling at each other as he climbed onto the bed with her, remembering that move from their previous almost-tryst. She remembered the last time he had done it and the way it had almost made her reconsider having to use the zip-ties as the means to keeping him occupied for about an hour.

Her hands reached for his belt buckle as he crawled on top of her. It was quickly undone and the belt slid easily from the belt loops as she pulled on it. Annie was about to drop it off the side of the bed when she heard Sasha make some raspy comment that sounded like, "Ooo, what are you going to do with that?"

One glance over at the woman made it obvious that she fully expected them to use some props. Eyal knew Annie wasn't about to get into whipping him and there was no circumstance of Earth that could cause him intentionally inflict pain on Annie, so he came up with a slightly less repugnant idea. He took the belt from Annie, and slowly pulled both her hands above her head. He held them there with one hand while sitting over her hips and slipping one end of the belt through the buckle. He slid the noose over her hands and wrapped the free end in a few more loops to loosely secure her hands together. Then he gave her a slightly mischievous grin and whispered, "You asked for this."

He trailed kisses down the middle of her chest and abdomen. He couldn't hide a smile at the way she twitched slightly when his lips met the exposed skin at the bottom of the little corset she was wearing. He stopped before he got passed her navel and repositioned himself further down the bed.

Annie wasn't quite sure what he was about to do, until she felt his nimble fingers quickly undo the attachments of the garter belt to her thigh highs. She had an idea what was coming and realized that she really did have no one to blame but herself for this. He placed a kiss on the inside of her thigh, at the top of the stocking before deftly and gently taking the top edge of the thigh high in his teeth and slowly dragging it down her leg. The move would have been simply arousing if not for her earlier insistence that he not shave. The ruggedly charming stubble now left a sensation that was a mixture of ecstasy and tickling in a trail down the inside of her thigh. When he moved to the other leg she couldn't suppress a whimpering little laugh, and she strained against the belt on her wrists.

He smiled triumphantly as he crawled back up the bed to plant a kiss on her lips. She brought her bound wrists down and wrapped them around his neck. Then almost entirely using her legs, she flipped him over on the bed so that she was straddling his waist. She sat up and held her hands down towards him. He reached up and undid the belt. She smiled and moaned slightly as she ground down against hip hips, purely in retribution for the grievous misuse of his prickly facial hair, then leaned forward and pecked him on the lips.

Annie started to dismount Eyal and they both looked over towards Sasha. Their performance certainly should have earned a spot for tomorrow night, if not and Academy Award.

"That's it?" She said. It sounded displeased.

Annie sat on the edge of the bed next to Eyal and hoped that maybe she just wanted to see what they would say. "You said we only had to go as far as we wanted. We were hoping to save something for tomorrow night." She rolled her bottom lip between her teeth seductively.

"All I've seen is you two make out like teenagers. The trick with the belt was a nice start, but I'm going to need to see more."

"What exactly are you looking for?" Eyal sat up and asked, trying not to sound as frustrated as he was.

"I'll be blunt." Sasha started, "Phil has decided one girlfriend isn't enough after six years, so he's also started swinging with this eurotrash slut. Little Oksana Baiul apparently used to be a model, so she brings around all these barely legal other former eurotrash model sluts. If the women I bring to him can't compete with that, then I'm going to become redundant. And redundant things get discarded. Let's be honest. I need to see what kind of actual skills you have." She said looking at Annie, then turned to Eyal. "And with those pants still on I have no idea if what you've got in the garage is a Hum Vee or a Mini Cooper." She took a big sip of wine and continued. "I'm not saying I have to watch you fuck him, but this is DC. At least show me that you can give a decent blow job."

Annie didn't have to look behind her to know what Eyal's expression would be. She could feel his blood boiling. She couldn't believe this was happening. This was exactly one of those situations that they had talked about earlier. There wasn't any way around it. Either she did this or they weren't going to get to their target. If they didn't get to their target she could lose Eyal. These were not the circumstances under which she had imagined this type of thing happening between them for the first time, but if those were her only options, this was one of those situations she was willing to subject herself to for the sake of their partnership.

"Fine." Annie said to Sasha before Eyal could say anything else. "That's reasonable." She turned and looked her partner in the eye, hoping he would remember his promise to let her take the lead. "Don't you think?"

Eyal could see it in her eyes. As much as she didn't want to do this she was determined to. As much as he hated it and as much as it went against every fiber of his being to allow this, he had promised her. He put on his best indifferent face and replied. "Sure, if you want to. I mean you'll be the one doing all the work."

She could feel the change in him even though it was probably imperceptible to anyone else. He had checked out again. Enough of him remained to stay in character, but that was all. She knew that he was doing this for her. Yet another sacrifice he was willing to make on her behalf. She shoved his chest until he lay back flat on his back again. "Then why don't you just lay back and enjoy this."

He had really really hoped it wouldn't come to this. This mission already reeked of sleaze and he didn't want any of it to taint any memory he might have of the first time he and Annie did anything together. What they were asking him to let her do to him was intimate and personal. And she was willing to cheapen and degrade herself by doing it on display for this deviant merely to keep their mission on track so that he wouldn't get reassigned. She crawled on top of him again and he couldn't imagine a situation where he could feel any less turned on. The Agency knew she'd be willing to do this because of the threat to their partnership if they failed. They knew he'd let her do it because he would never deny her anything. They were being used. It was the doctored Khalid photos all over again. As Annie leaned over him and traced kisses down his bare chest he was beginning to wonder if there were only two options a pair of romantically involved spies - for them to remain star-crossed and separate or to be constantly used and abused for their trust. Neither was pleasant.

Then her mouth reached the southernmost limit of bare skin above his pants and she paused to nip slightly at the delicate skin above the fabric. That managed to bring him out of his reverie. She settled herself on the bed between his legs at the level of his knees and leaned forward over him, placing her weight on her left forearm that rested on the bed next to his hip. He wasn't sure that he would be able to stay in any proper condition for this particular activity given his current distaste for the situation, but then she rubbed the heel of her hand over the front of his slacks and applied just the right amount of pressure. He responded with a moan and a reflexive thrust back against her hand. At least that part of his body was willing to go along with whatever Annie wanted, even if his mind was not. She looked up at him one last time before taking the final step across the proverbial line. With his eyes he pleaded with her to change her mind about this, to just let him threaten and beat on the creep in the chair next to them, even if she was a woman. He begged her not to do this. But ultimately the look that she accepted was the one telling her to do what she thought was right and that he would be there to support her no matter what, as promised.

She broke the eye contact and turned her focus to the front of his pants. As she undid the button he couldn't look. He turned his head to the side to bitterly see if Sasha was enjoying herself. The woman was so engrossed in what Annie was doing that she didn't even notice Eyal scowling at her. She watched with rapt attention, her right hand pressed between her thighs and her left hand beginning to fondle the upper part of her right breast. Again Eyal turned his focus to the hideous charm bracelet and its four ugly charms.

As Annie's hands moved to his zipper he registered the missing charm. He picked out the cat, the tooth, the heart, and the key. The big rectangular lock charm was gone. Had she lost it? Then he felt Annie's key hanging from the replacement necklace he had given her sway with her movements and brush against his thigh. That reminded him of something he had been playing with on Auggie's desk a few weeks earlier while they had been waiting for Annie to finish paperwork and join them for lunch. It was a silver earring, an exact replica of the ones Annie always wore, but was specially designed to contain a micro flash drive that she had previously used on a mission to sneak data through airport security.

As Annie slowly pulled down his zipper his mind raced back to the club. The bouncer with the odd behavior had kept playing with the bracelet. As Eyal went through the mental images of the man that he had catalogued he realized that the dark hair pale skin could easily have come from a Russian parentage. That's why they had never pinned down Sofiya's handler or contacts. She wasn't the one stealing the info. She was the reason the info was being stolen.

Just as Annie finished with the zipper and began to pull on the hem of his pants he blurted out, "Stop!"

"It's ok." She tried to assuage him one last time.

"No, Annie, stop."

His use of her actual name made her freeze.

He jumped up and scrambled around her to get off of the bed and zip his pants at the same time.

"What are you doing?" Sasha sounded upset.

Eyal looked to Annie, "We don't need to do anything else to trick this degenerate into taking us to the target. Our target is right here."

"Eyal, what are you talking about?"

"Sofiya's not a spy. Sasha is the one that's been stealing the information, I'm guessing to get back at Phil for taking on Sofiya as another girlfriend. I didn't recognize it for what it was, but the handoff was earlier tonight at the club. That bouncer was her handler and one of the charms on her bracelet was a micro USB."

Just then she tried to bolt from the chair towards the door, but Eyal caught her neck in his hand and slammed her back down into the chair. "I think it's time for me to use that other method of asset handling you give me so much grief about."

Annie walked over towards the door and found her purse on the rack next to her coat. She fished around in it and found her cell phone. She walked over and handed the purse to Eyal as she hit the contact icon for the DPD emergency line. "Be my guest. I'm not going to stop you tonight."

He looked down into the purse and saw his 9 mm amongst the other items. He smiled at just how well the blonde woman understood him. Then he withdrew the gun and waved it in front of Sasha's face. "You're going to tell us everything you know about the man you've been handing the information off to and how this got started."

By the time the clean-up squad arrived Annie and Eyal were fully dressed again and Sasha had spilled her guts about everything. When questioned, neither Annie nor Eyal could remember how she got that very nasty looking back eye and the broken finger. They assumed it must have happened during the struggle when she tried to escape that one time.

With the description and the information Eyal was able to give the recovery team about the bouncer/handler they were able to pick him up as he left the club at the end of his shift. He still had the charm/jump drive in his possession and it did, in fact, contain stolen information from Phil's most recent project that had been accessed through a remote link to the server on his home computer. The time stamp on the data confirmed that it was downloaded during a time that Sasha, and not Sofiya, was in the house with Phil. Poor Phil, it turned out, was none the wiser. After six years of being able to trust Sasha explicitly, he had not taken nearly the same security precautions when she was around as with his new girlfriend.

Annie and Eyal stood quite tall in front of the apartment building as Sasha was led out past them into an unmarked sedan. Annie looked over at Eyal and admired their work. "In less than six hours we just overcame some severely faulty intel and our supposedly emotionally compromising feelings for each other to capture not just the leak, but an FSB operative as well. Let's see Arthur Campbell try to say anything about that."

He smiled at her and put an arm over her shoulder. "Normally I would say that if anyone has a problem with how we worked together, they could mtsots li ta'zain, but somehow tonight that doesn't seem appropriate."

Annie couldn't help but laugh. Once she started laughing at the absurdity of the situation he joined in as well. Then they were laughing at each other, and it ended up taking a few minutes for them to get themselves back under control. Any lingering worries that the events of this night were going to in any way damage their partnership evaporated on the spot.

"Let's go home." Annie looked up at him and smiled.

…

**A/N: "mtsots li ta'zain" is a Hebrew translation for "suck my dick"**

…

Eyal stepped through the door to his darkened apartment first, and Annie followed behind. While he closed the door behind her and secured the dead bolt, she walked into the kitchen and grabbed two beers from the fridge.

"After tonight I think we need this." She held out a bottle to him, trying to break some of the sexual tension that had built up.

She was surprised when he stepped towards her and took both bottles out of her hands before she could open hers and placed them on the counter. "What I need tonight, is for you to leave." The tone in his voice was a little harsher than she ever would have expected under these circumstances.

"I'm sorry?" She started unbelievingly and a little hurt, "You want me to leave?"

His voice was softer and a little more desperate sounding. "No Annie," he reached out and gently took her wrists in his hinds, "I _really_ want you to stay. That's why I _need_ you to leave."

"Oh." It was all she could get out as she looked into his eyes. He hadn't turned on any lights and the apartment was still fairly dark.

He held her eye contact and took a step towards her. "When I take you into my bed for the first time, there will be no kinky lingerie, no deviant watching, and it will have nothing to do with a mission. It will be only you and me, and it will be about more than simple urges or pure need."

Annie's mental capacity to form words began to fail her. There were so many things she wanted to say to his admission, but the only thought that managed to escape her mouth was a sarcastic, " '_When_ you take me to bed?' Somebody's a little presumptuous."

The corner of his mouth twisted upwards in a dark grin as he inched closer to her. He stopped just far enough away that they weren't technically touching, but it was so close that they could feel the body heat radiating from each other. He gently placed the back of his right hand on the front of her left shoulder and softly traced his knuckles downwards along the side of her breast, along the side of her rig cage, past her waist, and then down to just in front of her hip bone before opening his hand and lightly gripping her hip.

The sensual caress caused Annie to arch towards him reflexively, closing the gap between their bodies and pressing her up against him. His grip on her hip tightened and there was nothing she could do to stifle the soft moan that escaped her lips.

He whispered softly in her ear, "I maintain that 'when' was an appropriate choice of diction." Then he released her and stepped back.

Annie heard the words come out of her mouth before she could register thinking them, "And what, now just isn't a good time for you?"

He was back against her in a heartbeat. He pressed into her, and she felt the edge of the counter dig into her back. He put his arms around her and gripped the countertop, pinning her arms against her sides. He got right in her face and ground his hips and his painfully engorged erection against her. His expression was dark and his tone husky, "Since we walked in that door, the only coherent thought in my head has been wondering if I can get you all the way to the bedroom, or if I should just take you right here on this counter."

She swallowed nervously. He made no attempt to hide the lust and want in his eyes. With the pressure of the entire length of his body against hers, she wasn't sure she wanted him to. "What's holding you back?"

"If we do this now, we'll always associate it with this night, this mission. Always wonder if it would have happened differently if we didn't let it get us so worked up. It wouldn't be just about us." His tone had softened towards the end and she realized that he was regaining some control. He released the counter and took a step back. Then he gently cupped the side of her face with his hand. "Please understand that when I say I need you to leave, it's not because I want you to leave, rather I want to avoid doing something we will both regret."

She could see it in his eyes, how torn and conflicted he was. It made her heart melt just a little. "I'll see you tomorrow Eyal." She said sweetly and smiled at him.

He dropped his hand from her cheek. "And we're ok?" He asked somewhat hesitantly.

She leaned up on her toes and kissed him softly on the cheek, the stubble she had insisted he leave scratching at her lips. "Always." Then she stepped past him and walked towards the door.

Seeming reassured, he added, "I'll come by tomorrow morning. We can go for that run you keep hounding me about."

"Only if you think you can keep up." She smiled over her shoulder as she grabbed her bags by the door and stepped out into the hallway.

…

Three hours later she was home, in bed, and still unable to sleep. She looked over at her clock for what had to be the fourteen thousandth time. It was only 4:02 am. She wasn't surprised that she couldn't fall asleep. Between the excitement of the mission, the sexual frustration, and all the new feelings that Eyal's admissions had brought up, she'd be surprised if she would sleep any time in the next week. She wondered if Eyal was fairing any better than she was. Was he lying in bed thinking about her and wondering if she was thinking about him? She doubted it. He was probably asleep. He was the kind of person that if something bothered him that much, he would just do something about it.

At that thought she heard a sound from the other room. It only took a second for her to recognize the distinct rattle and click of a lock pick in her front door. _I guess he isn't asleep._ She thought to herself. She got up, grabbed her robe from beside the bed, and swung it on.

She started talking to him as she walked towards her bedroom door. "Eyal, it's 4am. This better be about earlier, because if you think I'm going for a run this early you're insane."

Then she stepped into the living room. Instead of Eyal there to greet her, it was three men wearing all black, including ski masks. She turned to dive back into the bedroom, but she was too slow and they were already too close. She struggled against their grip, but a cloth was quickly placed over her mouth and she could taste the chloroform. Before she could do anything the world went black.

**A/N: This was actually the second chapter I came up with when I thought about writing a sequel and getting to this was the reason Next Tuesday is a series instead of a Christmas one-shot. Sadly, reality is often much stranger than anything I could come up with, and the swinger characters are based (with very little actual differences from reality) on a woman I once worked with and her boyfriend. She really enjoyed talking about "The Lifestyle" at work, so at least I've finally found something productive to do with all this previously useless knowledge floating around my brain.**

**Next time on Covert Affairs: Next Tuesday – Annie's been taken captive, but by whom? Can Eyal and Auggie work together to get her back? Ok that's a stupid question… like there's anything that the awesomeness of Eyal + Auggie couldn't accomplish... **


	5. Smooth Criminal

As He Came Into The Window  
It Was The Sound Of A Crescendo  
He Came Into Her Apartment  
He Left The Bloodstains On The Carpet  
She Ran Underneath The Table  
He Could See She Was Unable  
So She Ran Into The Bedroom  
She Was Struck Down, It Was Her Doom  
Annie Are You OK?  
So, Annie Are You OK?  
Are You OK, Annie?

**Smooth Criminal – Michael Jackson**

Eyal arrived at Annie's door at a quarter 'til nine wearing running clothes and carrying a salted caramel macchiato and a pumpkin spice latte. He debated picking the lock and letting himself in, but his hands were full and this late in the morning she would surely be awake. He knocked on the door a couple of times and waited. When he got no answer a minute later he knocked again. Still no one answered. It was odd, but he was certain there would be an explanation. Perhaps she was in the shower, or maybe she had taken something to help her fall asleep and she was still knocked out. Either way it was time for the lock pick. He set the coffees down and fished the picks out of his pocket. Within a few seconds the chamber inside the lock clicked and the door swung inward.

Eyal picked the beverages back up and casually walked inside. "Neshama? Are we going for this run or not?" He called to the still, quiet apartment. A chill went up his spine, and even though nothing appeared out of place, he knew something was wrong. He put the cups onto the nearest flat surface and instinctively unclipped the pistol from its holster inside his jacket pocket and held it pointed towards the ground in both hands as he turned the corner into her bedroom. He systematically cleared the bedroom and the bathroom before re-holstering his gun and looking around the apartment more closely.

His first concern was that she hadn't made it home last night, but he saw the garment bag she had brought with her last night hanging from the closet doorknob and the matching duffel bag was on the ground next to it. Had she gone running without him? Her mp3 player and headphones were sitting on top of her dresser and a quick inspection of her closet showed her running shoes still nestled amongst the multitude of pairs of designer heels. Had she been called in to work? A glance at his cell revealed no missed calls, and there was no way that they would call her in without him. He tried her cell. Maybe she had gotten an emergency call from Danielle and had run off to attend to family issues. His heart sank when he heard the distinct sound of an iPhone vibrating against a countertop in the kitchen. He ran back into the other room and found it sitting in its typical resting place on the corner of the kitchen counter connected to its charger. That was when he knew something was wrong. There was no way she would have gone anywhere without her phone. He looked to the hallway table by the front door, afraid to look, but partially knowing what he would find. Her purse still sat in its usual spot. He dumped it out and found that it still contained her wallet and car keys. This was bad.

He tapped a few icons on the screen of his phone and lifted it to his ear. Auggie picked up on the third ring.

"Wasn't expecting to hear from you this early in the morning." Auggie's voice greated him.

"Tell me she's with you."

"No can do. To be honest, I'm kind of surprised, and a little relieved, she isn't still with you after last night."

"Then we have a problem."

"What are we talking about?" Auggie finally questioned.

"I'm in her apartment and she's not. Something's wrong." Eyal's voice was approaching panic. That, above anything else put Auggie on edge.

"Was she expecting you? Could she have stepped out? If she's not there, how did you get in?

"We were supposed to meet this morning to go running. When she didn't answer the door I picked the lock and let myself in." He took a deep breath before continuing, "Her phone, keys, and wallet are all still here."

Now Auggie understood the other man's concern. "Tell me everything you see."

"Nothing's out of place. No sign of a struggle. Her bags from last night are in the bedroom, so I know she made it home, but the bed is made. No way to tell if she actually slept here last night. The door was locked and the lights were out when I arrived."

"Go to the hallway closet." Auggie instructed. Eyal did as he was told. "Find the third floorboard from the right. Pull it up."

Eyal did and found the hidden floor safe.

"The combination is 4, 12, 9, 9. Her niece's birthday."

Eyal turned the dial and the safe popped open.

"Tell me what's inside." Auggie asked.

"Four passports – one looks like her real one, then there is another American and two Canadian. There's some cash. A medium sized stack each of US dollars, Euros, and yen, and a few rubles. There's a glock nine mil and a burner cell at the bottom." Eyal finished listing the safe's contents.

"Damn. Everything's there." Now Auggie was starting to sound desperate. "Did anything happen between you two last night? Is there a chance she's just avoiding you?"

"It got a little heated, but we worked it out." When Auggie didn't say anything Eyal added, "Don't worry. Her virtue remains intact."

Auggie let a small chuckle slip out despite his overwhelming concern.

"Besides, even if she was avoiding me, there aren't many places she could go without her phone, ID, or money. That list gets considerably shorter if she's not with either of us and her mp3 player and running shoes are still here." Eyal finished.

"I think it's time to call Joan." Auggie replied with some hesitation.

…

Meanwhile, in the Campbell household, Arthur was sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee, half a grapefruit, and the New York Times dissected and covering most of the eating space. He was picking through the sports section when Joan walked in in her robe and flannel pajamas and poured herself a cup of coffee. She smiled in his direction without saying anything.

Arthur didn't even bother to return her stare. "Don't gloat. It's not very becoming." He said with a smile in his voice.

"What on Earth would I have to gloat about?" She asked innocently as she reached over his shoulder, picked up his spoon, and stole a wedge of the grapefruit.

"I got the memo. Looks like your kids did good last night."

Her smile was ear to ear. "I never had a doubt."

"Well that makes one of us. But I never mind being pleasantly surprised."

Joan pulled the paper out of his hands, placed it on the table and sat down across his lap. "Oh, there might just be one or two more pleasant surprises in store for you this morning."

"Really?" He smiled at her. Nothing ever seemed to put her in a good mood quite as much as when her team smoothly executed an op that he had had doubts about.

Just then her phone chirped from her robe pocket. She pulled it out and checked the caller ID as Arthur began to brush the hair away from her neck.

She tapped the "accept" icon and held the phone to her ear. "Eyal. I wasn't expecting to hear from you so soon after last night." She greeted as she attempted to brush off her husband's advances on her neck.

Arthur knew something was wrong immediately when her facial expression dropped and the woman on his lap became as still as a statue.

"What do you mean, 'gone missing'?" She asked into the phone. There was silence in the kitchen as she listened to the reply. "I'll send a team over there immediately." She dropped the phone from her ear and stood as she tapped the touchscreen a few times and replaced it at her ear.

As she waited for someone to pick up on the other end, she briefly paused her pacing and looked at Arthur. "Annie's missing."

He stood and carried the remnants of the grapefruit to the sink. He poured his and Joan's coffee into travel mugs before topping them up with what remained in the carafe as she gave the orders for a tech team to meet her at Annie's apartment.

"Looks like I'm not going to make that tee time." He handed her the coffee mug as she hung up the phone.

"No you go. I can take care of this." She offered.

"Joan, it's Annie. I'm coming with you."

She wasn't sure if his insistence on being supportive was out of concern for her, or due to the fact that when Annie Walker was involved it usually meant a situation with the potential to incorporate the entire Agency, especially if you factored in her now-partner.

They hurried to get dressed and were out the door in less than fifteen minutes.

…

Eyal greeted Barber, Stu, and the rest of the techies at the door to Annie's apartment. He started to walk them through the condition of the apartment when he found it. Auggie arrived just a few minutes behind them, and the Campbell's a few minutes after that. Annie's apartment had become an official three-ring circus.

One of the techs pointed out some slight scratches around the door lock that indicated that it had likely been picked recently. Eyal bashfully admitted that those were probably from him, though he was typically careful enough not to leave any marks. He had already gone over the scene and made his own conclusions. She had been lured out or taken from the apartment. The lack of any obvious evidence meant professionals. That meant that they should be at the DPD working this, not sitting here pawing through all of Annie's things. Eyal was starting to get frustrated and annoyed as everyone kept wasting time trying to come up with alternate theories for what had happened.

When Stu found the previous night's costume on the top of her laundry hamper he announced that it looked like she'd been seeing somebody and maybe they should be focusing on the mystery man.

Eyal grabbed the lingerie from his hand and growled, "That's from the op last night, you idiot."

Fortunately Auggie was there to restrain him when he heard Stu mumble, "Then I really need to start getting out in the field more often."

"Let's go see if Joan's got anything." Auggie firmly steered his friend back towards the living room. "Any word?" He asked as they approached. It was easy for him to find Joan and Arthur amidst the chaos. They were the only people in the cramped apartment being given a wide berth and standing calmly.

Joan's phone had rarely left the side of her face since they arrived. She let it drop now and addressed the two men in front of her. "No one has heard anything. There's no relevant chatter, and we still have nothing to go on."

"Let me reach out to some of my old contacts." Eyal offered.

"And let them know that you're still alive? Too risky. It would blow your cover here and you still might not get anything. Worse yet, it could make this worse for her. We don't know who has her or why she was taken." She responded.

"I'm asking you to let me find that out." Eyal's expression had gotten dark and Joan could feel him digging in his heels. She suspected that she was about to encounter his trademarked stubbornness and insubordination that were so frequently flagged in his Mossad file.

"Hey," Auggie broke the mounting tension and put a hand on Eyal's shoulder, "You're not alone in this anymore. Every one of us wants to find her just as badly as you do. We've got resources and options. You give me the names of some of these contacts and I will approach them discreetly."

Eyal took a deep breath and agreed. The stalemate between him and Joan effectively disengaged.

She continued, "We still need to be careful. The last credible threat we had on Annie came from Khalid Ansari. Is there any chance some of his faction could be trying to finish what he started?"

"I saw to that personally." Eyal reminded them. "And this is not their style. Khalid wanted her dead. There's no blood, so right now it is safe to assume they have taken her alive. Whoever this is, they need her for something. We just need to find out what."

Arthur had taken a call as his wife argued with the Israeli and was just hanging up. "We may have just found out. We need to get to Langley."

Arthur, Joan, Auggie, and Eyal left the techs to finish sweeping Annie's apartment and quickly departed. Eyal drove Auggie, and they were all in Arthur's office in less than twenty minutes.

"This call was received on one of the main switchboards at 10:16 am. It came from a burner cell and the signal was cloned and intentionally rerouted through multiple cell towers. We've got people working on narrowing down a location, but they think these guys used some decent tech and they may not be able to get far." Arthur had their rapt attention. He pressed a few keys on his keyboard and a message played from the speakers.

An unknown man with a Middle Eastern accent spoke quickly. "We have one of your agents. Either the Mossad traitor infidel surrenders himself at the disclosed location in twenty-four hours or she dies." There were some shuffling sounds, followed by what sounded like someone spitting at the phone. A slight scuffle followed with the unmistakable sound of a hand slapping flesh a few times. Then a petulant but familiar voice filled the room. "My name is Annie Walker. I am alive, but these men will kill me if you do not do as they say." She was obviously reading from a script. Eyal was already gripping the edge of the desk so hard his knuckles were white as the recording continued. There were more sounds of a scuffle followed by Annie yelling something garbled. It sounded like "Eyal… don't… I'm sorry." in between struggling, followed by a sound Eyal recognized as the butt of a gun making contact with a skull. It was quiet again on the recording before the man recited an address then hung up.

They were all silent for a moment before Arthur spoke again. "The address is an abandoned private airfield in rural Georgia."

"How soon can you get me there?" Eyal asked without hesitation.

Joan spoke up. "They already have one CIA operative. We are not about to just hand them over a second."

"I'm the one they want. You heard them." Eyal countered. "Whatever is happening to her is because of me. I'm going."

"We have time." She attempted to calm him. "Give us a few hours to see what we can put together on this. If we work together we can get her back without anyone needing to sacrifice themselves."

"Can I get an original copy of the message?" Auggie asked. His expression was focused. "These guys don't know how unwise it was to leave an audible message. They're playing in my world now."

Arthur handed him a jump drive with the data. "If you need anything, just let me know." Arthur offered and Auggie left the room.

"I'll give you time for now." Eyal offered, "But if it comes down to it, I'm making the trade." There was no room for discussion in his voice.

Joan knew there would be no talking him out of this. Whoever this was, if Eyal really was their target, they knew exactly how to get to him. "How many people, outside of the Agency know you are still alive?"

"None." He answered succinctly.

"No one?" Arthur asked. "You haven't contacted any of your family, no one back in Israel?"

"Not a soul." He reiterated.

"Then we have a pretty big problem." Arthur admitted. "Someone not only knows you are still alive, but they know your biggest weakness."

"It's as if someone has had access to your CIA file." Joan started putting together what Arthur was saying. "We have a leak."

Arthur picked up his office phone and started dialing. "We find the leak, we'll find Annie."

As Arthur started barking orders at some computer techs over the phone, Joan looked at Eyal. He looked like a tightly coiled spring ready to snap. Joan walked over to him and put a hand gently on his shoulder. "We'll get her back."

"You can't be sure of that."

"I have never been more sure of anything in my career." She looked him straight in the eyes as she said it.

"But we have nothing to go on and less than twenty-four hours."

"What we have is one of the best tech analysts in CIA history attacking that recording like his best friend's life depends on it. Auggie will figure out who has her and where she is. Then when he does, one of the most efficient and deadly operatives I have ever encountered is going to be running point on her rescue mission with the full backing of the world's top intelligence agency. I don't fear the men that have taken Annie, I pity them."

"I just wish we could get to the part where I can actually do something. Right now I just feel helpless." He admitted.

"Now is the time to let the others do their job. They are the best there is. Soon enough it will be time for you to do what you do best."

He still didn't look any less tense.

"In the meantime, why don't we go downstairs. You were the last one to see her before she was taken. You can help me put together a time line."

Eyal was shocked when they arrived in the DPD. Saturday morning should have had only a skeleton crew. Instead, it was busier than he'd ever seen.

Joan noticed his stunned look. "Yes, this is all for Annie. I called most of them in right after you called me. The rest are here voluntarily. I don't know how Mossad would have handled this type of situation, but here, if someone chooses to go after one of our operatives, they are going against us all."

"Then why did Auggie have to call me to help in Russia?"

"That was a different scenario." Joan sighed. "I assume Auggie gave you the details about why she was in Russia to start with."

"I never asked." He answered bluntly. "It didn't matter."

Joan let that sink in for a moment. So his feelings for her were already there long before Russia. She catalogued that information away to analyze later and continued, "She went to take down the FSB double agent that shot her, killed Simon Fischer, and attempted to frame her as the traitor. It was personal and completely unsanctioned. Our hands were tied. This is different. Some terrorist came into our country and took one of our operatives from her home in an attempt to capture another operative. This time we have full authority to use every possible means at our disposal."

"I suppose that is somewhat comforting." He responded, though he didn't sound at all comforted.

"There is a reason that the CIA has only lost one hundred and five active operatives since the Agency was founded. Compound that with the fact that the one hundred and fifth star on that wall belongs to the man whose position you filled, and this entire department is going to stop at nothing to get Annie back. You have my word."

Eyal looked over and saw Auggie in his office with his head phones on working intensely. That was actually comforting to him. Joan ushered him into a conference room with a few of the other DPD field operatives he recognized more by face than by name and a few tech analysts. She punched some keys on the computer attached to the overhead projector and a blank screen with a solid black horizontal line through the middle appeared.

"What do we know for sure?" Joan asked the small group.

One of the other men replied, "The ransom call came in at 10:16 am."

Joan typed for a moment and a mark appeared on the left hand side of the time line with the time 10:16 am and the words "ransom call".

"Eyal, after the mission last night, when and where did you last see Annie?" Joan asked.

"We went back to my apartment so she could get her car and her things. She left right around one."

A notation appeared on the timeline documenting what he'd said. "What else do we know?" Joan inquired.

"She was already long gone when I got to her apartment at 8:45."

The large blank gap on the timeline began to narrow slightly as each new piece of information was entered. Joan continued to push. "That's still a nearly eight hour window. Is there anything else?"

Eyal answered again. "Based on what we found in her apartment, she obviously made it home, which is a fifteen minute drive at that time of night. We found her clothes from the mission in her laundry, so she had time to change and likely shower before being abducted. That would take another thirty minutes approximately."

Another field agent chimed in. "That apartment building starts getting pretty busy around eight am on a weekend with families and people going in and out. Professionals also wouldn't risk something like this in daylight, so the abduction almost certainly took place before 7:30."

"No doorman or security cameras?" One tech analyst asked.

"No." Eyal answered. "She picked it for exactly that reason."

"What about cell phone calls originating from that area overnight?" Another technician asked as he started punching things into a tablet he was holding. "The abduction team might have called whoever hired them to let them know they'd successfully grabbed her. We can cross reference outgoing phone calls from a one block radius around her apartment for this time frame and see if any belong to numbers we recognize or suspicious burner cells. That could pinpoint when she was taken."

"Do it." Joan encouraged.

The tech plugged a cord from the projector into his tablet and hit a few buttons on the machine. The large display shifted to a grid-lined map of the area surrounding Annie's apartment. He began to narrate what he was entering as yellow dots appeared on the screen. "Between the times of 2 am and 7:30 am, 257 phone calls originated in this one block radius. Each dot is a call originating within roughly three meters of that spot. If we remove all of those originating from land lines, that drops to 173 calls." A noticeable amount of yellow dots disappeared from the screen. "If we cross reference the location with the cell phones' billing addresses and remove all of those belonging to people living in the area we're down to 63." The number of yellow dots on the screen started to appear manageable.

One of the field operatives suggested, "This wouldn't have been a long conversation. Even if they were getting directions on where to take her, you can rule out any calls lasting longer than three minutes."

The tech tapped his screen a few times and two thirds of the dots disappeared.

"Run the LUDS on each of those phones." Joan ordered.

Eyal looked at the map and realized they didn't need to. He walked up to it and pointed to a specific dot that sat in an area he knew was an alley way off the back of Annie's building. It was where he had watched her the night she moved out of his apartment and into her new one when they weren't speaking and he had decided to go after Khalid Ansari. "That one." He said with confidence.

The tech pulled up some data. "That call originated at 4:12 am. It is a prepaid cell purchased at a local DC bodega. It is currently powered off or inoperable. That is the only call that has been made from that phone and it went to another prepaid cell with a Lowndes county Georgia area code."

"That's the same area as the drop point for the exchange." An operative pointed out.

"That's it!" Eyal exclaimed.

"Good work everybody." Joan praised and the crowd began to file out of the conference room. Just then she noticed Barber at the door to the conference room with a pensive look on his face. She walked up to him and Eyal instinctively followed.

"I've found something, but I don't think you're going to like it." Barber informed her nervously.

"Let's go to my office." She led the way. Once the three of them were inside she closed the door.

"I looked into anyone attempting to access Eyal's file, like Director Campbell asked and I found something."

"What is it?" Joan prodded him to continue.

"It's rather ingenious actually." He admitted. "Anyone attempting to outright access his file, even from within the CIA, would be denied and about a dozen flags would be sent out because of his special status and our attempting to maintain the cover that he's dead."

Joan gave him a pointed look that told him to hurry up and get to the point.

"The breach came from the State Department. When we hired Eyal we had sent a standard request to State, Homeland, and the FBI for any information they held on a Mossad operative that had been known to operate within our country. It was a discreet way to find out the information that other agencies had on him and to allow us to scrub as much of it as we needed to help maintain his cover here. Someone knew exactly what they were looking for because they mirrored the electronic submission of that request form, except they added a worm virus. When the request bounced back as a duplicate it was electronically linked to the file we had since created on him. The virus gave them access to everything in his file."

"What else did they get?" Joan asked.

"They had access to anything linked to him through that file – mission reports, aliases, and limited portions of the files on everyone in the Agency that he has worked with before or since turning CIA." He answered. "What would someone in the State Department have against you so bad they'd take Annie?" Barber asked Eyal naively.

"Thank you Eric. This helps tremendously." Joan said as a dismissal, and he got the hint.

"So who do we know that has enough clout with the State Department to warrant someone committing treason, and has a personal vendetta against you?" Joan asked Eyal knowingly.

Just then Auggie barged into the office. "I had to run it through a lot of filters, but I got something. Something big." Joan and Eyal turned to him. "That garbled message from Annie at the end… She wasn't saying '_I'm sorry_'. She was telling us who had taken her."

Eyal spoke up and he and Auggie both simultaneously said, "Omar _Ansari_."

"So now we know when and who." Joan smiled. "We just need to figure out where."

It wasn't even noon yet. Eyal had to admit that he was a little impressed by the team's efforts. "They took her just after four and they made the call just after ten. That's a six hour window."

"The tech they used to scramble that call was pretty intense. It probably took a little while to set up once they got Annie there, so I'm guessing that they're travel time to wherever they've got her is closer to five hours." Auggie added.

"That's still a lot of ground to cover, especially for someone like Omar with private planes and boats at his disposal." Joan sighed.

"Annie knew it was Ansari, so that probably means he is where ever they've got her. Is there any record of him entering the US?" Auggie asked.

Joan picked up her phone and spoke to her secretary. "Get on the phone with Homeland. I need to know the last time Omar Ansari came into the US." Then she returned the handset to the cradle.

"Auggie's right. Omar wouldn't risk getting caught on American soil with a captive CIA operative." Eyal agreed.

Auggie added, "And five hours isn't enough time to get very far outside the US, even with a plane."

Joan's phone rang and she picked it up. She listened for a few seconds before saying "Thank you." and hanging it back up. She turned to Auggie and Eyal. "Omar Ansari has not been in the US since the OPEC summit in October." Joan paused. "But one of his private planes did make a brief layover in Wilmington, Delaware early this morning."

"Did they file a flight plan?" Auggie asked.

"No. The plane was small enough that it wasn't required." Joan answered.

"Wilmington is about two hours from here." He continued. "With our timeline that means they flew for around three hours to reach their destination. That leaves us with Canada or the Caribbean."

Joan postulated, "Canada's too friendly. There are really only two options in the Caribbean for subverting US interference. Cuba or Haiti."

"I know where he has her." Eyal interjected. "When I was surveilling Khalid, I heard some of his pillow talk with the Carr woman one night. He said that she reminded him of his first love from his childhood - the daughter of the man that managed his father's small sugar cane plantation outside of Port-au Prince where his family would vacation every summer when he was a boy."

Auggie put a hand on his shoulder. "We've got them."

Joan was on the phone again, this time with Arthur. She briefly read him in on their developments. "What eyes do we have on the ground in Haiti? I know we need to tread lightly since the Aristide debacle in 2004, but this is a foreigner holding an American citizen on their soil. Do you have any contacts within CARICOM that might be more sympathetic?"

Auggie and Eyal returned to Auggie's office as Joan made her calls. "Let's see what we can find out about this plantation." Auggie smiled as he took his seat and put on his head phones. "The sugar cane industry in Haiti took a nose dive in the late eighties and early nineties after the introduction of high fructose corn syrup and smuggling of tariff free sugar from the Dominican. It looks like Ansari's plantation stopped its commercial business in '95, but he still owns the property. I'm pulling up satellite imaging now."

Eyal scanned the overgrown twenty-plus acre expanse. "It doesn't look like anyone has been maintaining the property. Is this a live feed?"

"Live and in living color. Or at least that's what they tell me."

"Can we zoom in any closer?"

Auggie answered, "Not much, but see if this helps." The image on the screen got slightly larger as he clicked away at his keyboard.

Eyal silently absorbed details of the landscape. It was a rectangular property with four distinct cane fields that had become terribly overgrown. There was a long road running nearly the length of the property down the middle next to an irrigation ditch that he suspected could be used to land a plane if it was small enough. Along the western edge of the property was a dirt driveway leading from the nearby perimeter road to a dilapidated old plantation house. There were a few other outbuildings in an equivalent state of disrepair scattered around the property. Nothing stirred outside except for a few what he now realized were goats in one of the fields. He thought he could make out recent tracks along the potential landing strip leading to a large warehouse, and maybe some vehicle tracks along the driveway, but the resolution wasn't great.

"What types of structures do you see?" Auggie asked.

"There's a farm house, a detached garage, a couple small sheds, and a big warehouse building probably meant for crop storage. I only see power lines to the house." He added the last part knowing what Auggie's next question would have been.

"Then that's probably where they're keeping her."

They began discussing tactical options for storming the house. Their biggest problem with a full on assault would be the lack of appreciable cover in the surrounding area. Attempt to take any sizeable group towards the house and they would be spotted before they even got close. It would have to be a small tactical team. Two to three members, max. Eyal checked the time, 12:13. Accounting for travel and preparations, any breach would have to be at night. At least darkness would be working in their favor. Working against them was a complete lack of knowledge about what awaited them inside the house – layout, number of men, firepower, booby traps.

Auggie wanted to be on the ground for this mission so bad Eyal could feel it. When he stopped and thought about his options, there really were quite a few ways he could utilize him in the field this time. A few small explosions at strategically positioned locations around the farm could draw some of Omar's goons out while Eyal snuck in to retrieve Annie. Auggie could operate a remote detonator from nearby just as well as any visual operative. If he was going to be going into the field on a dangerous mission with somebody besides Annie, he liked the idea of it being Auggie. He had a great mind for strategy and could think on his toes if things didn't go as planned. Auggie was the only one that had worked with both him and Annie enough that to be able to predict how they would react to different situations and accommodate that. Most importantly, he knew where the other man's priorities lie. If it came down to it, Auggie would leave him behind to save Annie. When it all came down to it, that was a quality far more valuable to Eyal than 20/20 vision. They planned together for a little while before walking over to Joan's office.

Eyal noticed that Auggie seemed somewhat tense. Likely the younger man was worried that he would be told that he was not allowed to actively participate, due to his disability. Eyal had no such concern. Joan had told him that he would be running this mission. He and Auggie _were_ this mission. Either Joan would sign off on it or they would go on their own. It had worked well enough in Russia.

Joan could tell exactly what was coming the moment Auggie and Eyal appeared in her doorway. Auggie would want to be in the field and Eyal would support it. If the circumstances were different, she might even consider it for something like this. But, it wouldn't work this time. As easily as Joan could predict their plan, so would the men holding Annie. They had access to their files, including the detailed description of how Auggie and Eyal had worked together to free Annie from Le Fortovo. They would see this two man team coming a mile away.

"I know what you're about to ask, and I can't allow it." Joan cut Eyal off before he could begin.

"Joan, if this is because of me…" Auggie started.

Eyal spoke over top of him, "You said I would run point on this. This is what I choose for this op."

"Auggie, this isn't just about you." Joan began. "I can't let the two of you go out there together."

"I am going." Eyal stated. "We ran through different scenarios, and with all of the unknowns there is no way this mission succeeds without a two man team in play." He looked over at Auggie and shrugged slightly. "Or at least one and a half men."

"I'm standing _right_ here." Auggie grumbled at Eyal's inappropriate humor.

"Gentlemen, I have no doubt that you two are the most likely team for this mission…" Joan consoled.

Eyal interrupted, "Then what is the problem?"

Joan finished, "That is exactly the problem. These men have gone to great lengths to get your files. They know how you operate. This is precisely what they will be expecting, what they will have planned for."

"Then what are you suggesting?" Auggie asked.

"I'm suggesting that we are going to have to throw something completely out of character at them, something no one will ever see coming." Joan answered with a sly smile.

"We?" Eyal asked curiously, not having missed that particular pronoun's usage.

"Why don't you two step inside and close the door." Joan's expression had become a rather wicked grin.

**A/N: I have the next four days off, so hopefully I will get the next couple chapters up relatively quickly. But tonight is the office Christmas party… so I might not be especially productive until mid-afternoon tomorrow when the inevitable hangover begins to wear off…**

**Next time on Covert Affairs: Next Tuesday – expect a fine bit of bad-assery as Auggie, Eyal, and Joan go after Omar Ansari and attempt to rescue Annie in Haiti.**


	6. I Need a Hero

**A/N: So sorry for the huge delay. I have absolutely not given up on this story. This has been sitting on my lap top about 80 % written for weeks now. Work got insane (being the only surgeon in town can really suck sometimes…) and family has been visiting. My mom is actually a rabid Annie/Auggie shipper so her constant comments really screwed my mood for writing. I finally had 3 days off and my friend came over this weekend with some very good absinthe… The best Sazerac in DC may be at the Parchment, but the best one (and likely the only place you'll find a Sazerac) in Helena, Montana is at my house. :)**

I need a hero  
I'm holding out for a hero 'til the end of the night  
He's gotta be strong  
And he's gotta be fast  
And he's gotta be fresh from the fight  
I need a hero  
I'm holding out for a hero 'til the morning light  
He's gotta be sure  
And it's gotta be soon  
And he's gotta be larger than life

**I Need a Hero – Bonnie Tyler**

The first sensation Annie was able to distinguish was a dull throbbing pain coming from the right side of her head. As consciousness more fully returned to her, she tasted blood in her mouth. The fact that she was tied to a chair with her hands behind her back then registered, and she began to recollect the recent events. She had fought her captors when they tried to make her participate in her own ransom call, and she had hopefully managed to get a message to Langley identifying Omar Ansari as her captor. Beyond that, she had no idea where she was or how long she had been held captive. She remembered the abduction in her apartment, but had been kept drugged the entire time between then and their arrival at her current location.

She couldn't gauge how much time had passed, as she was being kept in an interior room with no windows, but she suspected it had been substantial. The room she was in was stuffy, hot, and humid with no evidence of central climate control. That fact combined with the old peeling pastel wall paper and the general styling and décor of the room hinted at a turn of the century plantation house, either somewhere in the Deep South or possibly the Caribbean. That was all the intel she had been able to gather on where she was being held. Omar Ansari and his personal guard that had made the ransom call were the only ones that had entered the room with her, the latter staying always inside the room and monitoring her. Omar had come to gloat when she had initially regained consciousness. Apparently he had taken some personal offense at Eyal's assassination of his son, and this was all an elaborate plan to exact his vengeance.

The elder Ansari had assured her that she would be returned to the US unharmed once Eyal surrendered himself, but that plan made no sense to her. If his end game was killing Eyal, why not just abduct Eyal? Why even bother with her? She got the distinct impression that something more sinister was at hand than a simple hostage swap. Also, why had they given Eyal twenty-four hours to surrender himself? It was like they were intentionally giving him time to devise a rescue plan. It seemed weird that they would know enough about him to know to use her to get to him, but wouldn't expect him to come after her.

"I see you are awake again." Her captor taunted. "Did you enjoy your little nap?"

"Not nearly as much as I'm going to enjoy watching Eyal make you pay ten-fold for every bruise you've put on me."

"You seem quite confident that he will come. That is rather optimistic of you."

"And I think it's a little overly optimistic on your part to believe that you'll still be breathing in twenty-four hours." She gave him a sardonic smile. There were very few things she could trust as absolute certainties in her line of work. One of those very few certainties was the undeniable fact that Eyal would come for her, likely with Auggie's help. If Joan didn't authorize it, they'd just go behind her back, again. She'd never been more sure of anything in her life. It was exceptionally reassuring in her current predicament.

He just laughed at her and continued to sit in his chair, whittling a piece of wood with a large hunting knife.

Somehow her certainty didn't seem to faze the man as she expected it should. He almost seemed excited at the prospect of Eyal attempting to rescue her. That gave her a slight pause. Did they want Eyal to stage a rescue mission? Were they hoping he would show up off the books and hell-bent on vengeance? It was the only thing that made any sense – why they had taken her alive, why she'd been allowed to narrowly slip in the message identifying Ansari in the ransom call, why they'd given him so much time.

It was some kind of trap. Unfortunately, in her current condition, she had no way to find out what they had planned or get any word out to her would-be rescuer to warn him. She calmed herself, realizing that if she had come to this conclusion on her own, surely Eyal and Auggie, with all the help of the CIA would figure it out too. She just worried that even knowing that it was a trap may not be enough to stop him. All she could do was hope that Eyal and Auggie would come up with something that these guys would never see coming.

…

Auggie and Eyal sat across from each other in the spacious seats of the private jet going over their plans for the hundredth time. Occasionally Eyal would glance towards the back of the plane where Joan sat, going over paperwork of her own.

"I suppose there is one benefit to bringing your superior on a mission with you." Eyal said as he stretched his legs. These were hands-down the best flight accommodations he had been afforded in a very long time.

"Oh I think you'll find some other benefits to having Joan along once you get out there." Auggie smiled.

"Honestly Auggie, you've had access to some of her files. Despite that one mission a couple years ago that you told me about, when was the last time she was really in the field? What can I realistically expect out there from her?" He didn't even try to hide the concern in his voice. He was going after Annie and he wasn't about to let anything slow him down.

"You do realize that she is going into the field after guys that have taken Annie hostage? That's extra motivation right there. You want to know what she'll be like? How can I best summarize this…" Auggie contemplated for a brief moment. "You've seen that YouTube video about the honey badger, right?"

Eyal chuckled at the comparison then looked back over Auggie's shoulder again to make sure she hadn't heard them.

"In all seriousness," Auggie continued, "When I was running the OSP I did get access to some of the reports from missions she went on with Arthur back in the day. I know it's hard to believe only knowing her now as our hard ass of an administrator, but if you read those files with the names redacted, it's freakishly easy to pretend you're reading one of Annie's reports."

"So all that talk around Langley about Annie being a younger version of Joan?"

"Not at all off base." Auggie reached forward and patted the other man's shoulder. "Just think of this mission as a glimpse ten years into your future." He dropped his hand and leaned back into his seat.

Eyal rolled his eyes and settled back into his seat as well. Right now he wasn't thinking about whether or not he and Annie would still be working together in ten years, he was worried about whether they would be alive in ten hours. He understood the reasoning behind it, but he still hated working with other people. The way he and Annie had fallen so easily into working together years ago was a fluke, and he knew that. He worked alone. The success or failure of his missions depended entirely on him. This feeling of letting something as important as Annie's life depend even in part on other people irritated him. He looked at the man sitting across from him and realized that he had no idea how Auggie coped. If he suddenly lost his vision and had to rely on others for help, he wasn't sure he could survive it. He worked alone. He lived alone. His need for independence was nearly pathologic. Others respected that. That was what normal spies did. Now here he sat, working with and depending on these other people to help him rescue his partner. How had he come to this point? He realized the very simple answer to his own question. Annie.

They had reluctantly worked together in Zurich to salvage their mission and then kept each other close in an attempt to one up each other in Paris. He had liked her at that point. Her initially annoying naiveté and willingness to believe the best in people had grown endearing, but, it was in that dilapidated stone building in the French countryside when she really got under his skin. He knew he was dead the minute Kanaan's men lead him from that bar. His only hope had been that he would withstand the inevitable torture with enough decorum and die before unintentionally giving up any information. Then she had appeared and everything changed. Any ordinary person would have viewed him as nothing more than an acquaintance that had just stolen their camera's very important SD card. A normal person's response would have been to leave him to his fate. Not Annie Walker. She tracked him down and risked her life to rescue him, on her birthday no less. Who in their right mind did something like that? While he wouldn't say that her selfless act had renewed his faith in humanity any, he was willing to admit that the experience made him willing to try putting a little faith in another person for the first time in a long time. They spent the next two years unexpectedly turning up and taking turns saving each other's lives before the series of events revolving around Khalid Ansari had culminated in this new partnership. Somewhere along that path she had become more important to him than everything, even his own country. Now he was that guy selflessly throwing himself in harm's way to save her. However, this time there was a lot more than an acquaintance and an SD card at stake. She was only in peril because of him. While he had never had a problem suppressing his nerves or anxiety while on a mission, he found himself wholly unable to contain the immense guilt he felt knowing that if anything happened to Annie it would be all his fault.

Eyal was broken out of his reverie by Joan taking the seat next to Auggie across from him.

"So we're all clear on how this is going to go?" Joan asked.

"Auggie and I will take a small commercial flight into Post Au Prince from where we are about to land in the Dominican Republic. Ansari will likely be expecting us, so we are supposed to let his men tail us and keep them occupied while you arrive much more discreetly and do the necessary surveillance. Around six pm we will rendezvous at the El Rancho Hotel and finalize our extraction plan." Eyal summarized, obviously not thrilled about the plan.

"And under no circumstance are you to engage Ansari's men or go near his plantation before our coordinated attack after dark. Is that clear?" She asked pointedly.

"Yes." Eyal and Auggie both mumbled.

Joan was not even remotely reassured by their answer. "I know how badly you want her back, and I know how tempting it is to just go after her as soon as we touch down. But that is what they are expecting. Our best chance for getting her out safely and getting everyone home alive is to follow our plan."

Auggie nodded his reassurance and Eyal still didn't look happy about it, but gave a curt nod indicating that he did understand and would follow their plan. Joan had thought that managing Annie was bad enough at times. Now she had a whole new level of respect for Rivka. Joan had found herself having to resort to using Eyal's feelings for Annie as either incentive or threat to control the former Mossad operative far more often than she would have liked over the past few months. She had no idea how the Israeli department manager had managed to keep him reigned in without such motivation.

Just then they could feel the landing gear move into place and heard the captain announce that they were on their final approach to the Punta Cara airport.

Once they had taxied to the executive terminal Auggie and Eyal stood and waited all too anxiously to disembark. Joan walked to the door with them. "I know you both still want to go after her right now, but I caution you..." She paused and looked them in the eyes. "Honey badger don't care."

Auggie looked embarrassed and blushed a bit. Eyal just chuckled. Maybe he had underestimated her.

…

Eyal assisted Auggie getting down the ramp of the small commuter plane in the bright sunlight.

"I know it sounds kind of ridiculous, but I think Joan was right. I can feel the eyes on us. Have you spotted our tail yet?" Auggie asked as they made their way into the airport terminal to go through customs and procure a rental car.

"I haven't picked them out yet, but what you're saying is not ridiculous. We are certainly being watched."

They made their way through customs uneventfully and Eyal waited patiently in line at the rental car counter. They were happy to be out in the open as much as possible. For this plan of Joan's to work, all eyes needed to be on him and his blind companion. It felt unsettling to intentionally try to draw attention to himself on a mission. Auggie seemed to be having fun with the concept though.

While waiting on Eyal, Auggie had struck up a conversation with the man from the airport security handling a large German Shepherd that sniffed the bags and people going through customs to check for contraband. The handler apparently also worked training seeing-eye dogs for people on the island with disabilities, and was happy to talk with Auggie. Auggie had always liked the working dogs when he was in the military. While they could easily rip your arm from its shoulder, the properly trained ones knew how to turn that killer instinct off and on like a switch. Most of the guys he knew from the canine units that took their dogs home with them, usually found that the dogs preferred to sleep curled up in bed with their young children at night like big teddy bears. This trainer seemed to have done a good job, as this dog, Rex, seemed to be quite happy to receive some attention while waiting for the next round of baggage to inspect. He scratched the dog's ears and petted the top of his head and received a few gentle licks on his hand for the friendly rubs. He felt the dog stiffen as a man approached behind him.

"Making a new friend?" Eyal asked, a small amount of stress seeping into his tone.

"Just waiting on you." Auggie returned, then looked to the dog's handler and thanked him, "Li se yon bon chen. Bòn chans pou ou tou de."

Then the pair began the trek through the airport parking lot to find their rental car. It was a red Jeep Wrangler with the canvas top already taken down. Auggie recognized the vehicle make quickly and laughed. "Could you have found anything more conspicuous?"

Eyal smirked and shrugged a shoulder in response. Then he remembered that that wouldn't be enough of a response, so he added, "Someone had already rented the Ferrari."

They drove around for a while and stopped at a pay phone to make a call to a potential contact. Half an hour later, as they were walking down a fairly crowded street to meet their contact at an old camera shop that was well known to be a front for discreet sales of moderate amounts of explosives, Eyal confirmed his earlier suspicions. Two men he had seen at the airport were in fact following them.

"Our tail is across the street at our eight o'clock." He quietly mentioned to Auggie.

"How many?"

"Just two that I can see. Wouldn't be surprised if there is another one nearby or waiting with the car."

"Shows that we're in the right place. Do they look like Omar's personal staff or has he just hired some local talent?"

"They look local. Probably ex-paramilitary." Eyal contemplated as he discreetly counter-surveilled the pair of men across the street in the reflection in a shop window.

"If Omar is able to spare two to three guys just to watch us for the afternoon, there must be a pretty decent sized force still at his compound." Auggie reasoned.

"That wouldn't surprise me. A large payroll is not a difficulty for an Ansari." Eyal replied as they reached their destination. "Here we are." He announced to Auggie and held the shop door open for him before following inside.

…

Eyal and Auggie stepped out of the little storefront onto the still bustling Port Au Prince street about thirty minutes later carrying a leather satchel containing a relatively small amount of combustible devices. They strolled back down the street towards their waiting Jeep. The little shopping trip had been merely a diversion to attract attention and ensure that their tail knew they were here and intended on a rescue mission. Joan had already procured the real pyrotechnics for the evening much more discretely.

They made a few more stops to talk to some assets in the area and meet with a small times weapon dealer. It was late evening as the guys drove to the previously agreed upon motel on the outskirts of town and went through the motions of checking in, even though their rooms had already been secured. Joan had been in the adjoining room for some time already to avoid being spotted by Eyal and Auggie's tail when they arrived. As they entered the small shabby motel room she walked through the door between the rooms into their side of what was now their operations center. She was dressed in all black special forces BDUs with her blonde hair pulled up under a black baseball cap, and it almost took Eyal a second to recognize her. They all sat and she relayed what she had been able to discover while Eyal and Auggie had spent the afternoon keeping all of Omar's attention trained on them.

"He is definitely here, but no one has been able to say for certain that they have seen Annie. He must be keeping her at the plantation. Ansari has been in town for a few days, but his Cessna 310 landed on the property this morning right after daybreak. The propellers scared a neighbor's cattle and caused a small bit of commotion. The neighbor reported that five men with guns came over and told him to get the cattle under control and stay out of their business or he would have bigger things to worry about."

Eyal calculated, "That makes at least five thugs on guard, another one likely stayed behind to help guard Annie, the two that were waiting around the airport to spot us, then there's Ansari himself, and probably a second in command – the one that made the phone call to Langley."

"So that's about ten men in play?" Auggie confirmed.

"Any surprises?" Eyal asked.

"The garage where he's keeping his car is rigged to explode if the car is taken out without some type of disarming signal, probably from an RFID chip." She described.

"So he expects that's how we would plan to make our get away." Eyal sneered.

"He doesn't expect you to bring along someone with a pilot's license." She smiled. "The plane is gassed up and under minimal surveillance in the large warehouse off the west side of the property."

Auggie smiled in Joan's direction. It really was like working with Annie.

"I also left our extra special parting gift in there where no one will find it. There's enough C4 to demolish the house, the garage, and most of the airstrip if we need to. That should let us cover our tracks fairly well."

"So we proceed as planned?" Eyal questioned.

"Exactly." Joan confirmed. "You two will leave first and get to the property after dark. Auggie, you hang back in the dummy escape vehicle parked to the southeast of the property. They'll likely come for you and bring you to Ansari."

"I love being the bait." Auggie said sarcastically.

"Eyal, you blow the shed behind the house on the northeast corner. They'll be so busy guarding Auggie and running around after you that they'll never suspect it as I sneak in and retrieve Annie. Together we'll get Auggie and we'll all rendezvous at the plane once the hostiles have been handled and Omar Ansari has been neutralized. We'll plant the explosives and get out without any evidence that we were here."

"Sounds so simple. What could go wrong?" Eyal still wasn't convinced that Joan's slightly more contrived plan was a better course of action than his usual sneak in, shoot some bad guys, blow the rest up routine. However, she had been right that this whole thing had been a set-up, as he and Auggie had been followed from the moment they stepped off the plane.

"Sundown is at 6:32. That means we've got about an hour until it's dark enough to make our move. Why don't you two grab something to eat and get ready. I'm going to call in to Langley and update them on the situation."

Auggie and Eyal smiled knowingly at each other. While she made it sound like she was making a routine check-in, they knew she was really calling Arthur to let him know she was ok and that she had everything under control. As Joan walked back into the adjoined room and closed the door between them, the guys made their way to the small hotel café and got simple sandwiches and potato chips. While neither of them particularly felt like eating, they had been going non-stop since early that morning. If they didn't eat something, the lack of food could potentially affect their performance tonight. They brought their light dinner back to the hotel room and ate as they went through the duffel bags of supplies Joan had left on the bed for them. They both changed into the same all black long sleeve t shirts and cargo pants Joan had been wearing along with combat boots and fingertip-less black leather gloves. Joan rejoined them at that point and they pulled on the body armor vests, but didn't fasten them up quite yet. Lastly they each attached as many of the various shoulder, leg, and ankle holsters as they could comfortably manage. Together, the three of them would be better armed than some small countries.

The sun slowly dipped below the horizon and darkness started to descend on the island. Once it was reasonably dark, Eyal and Auggie made their way out to the Jeep with a few extra duffel bags. Joan watched as they pulled away and saw the silver sedan that had been parked in the café parking lot follow them a moment later. She waited an additional five minutes and scanned the parking lot and surrounding hotel rooms for any sign of additional surveillance. When she saw none she quickly gathered her things, loaded the trunk of her dark brown older model two-door, and began the fifteen minute drive out to Ansari's plantation.

A small amount of cash had changed hands earlier in the day when Joan had spoken with the neighboring rancher whose cattle had been disturbed by Ansari's plane, and secured Joan an inconspicuous place to park her vehicle. After having been threatened by Ansari's goons that morning, he assumed it was a drug ring setting up shop on the long abandoned plantation, and was happy to do anything he could to help keep that kind of influence away from his farm. His property bordered the northwestern edge of Ansari's and Joan parked her borrowed old car amongst the other dilapidated vehicles on the farmer's property along its southern boundary. She secured her bullet-proof vest and checked the security of her handguns in their holsters before carefully creeping through the sugar cane towards the farmhouse. She didn't see Eyal or Auggie yet, but she knew they were already nearby. She hid amongst the shadows along the building's western side, just around the corner from the back door, and waited.

…

Auggie and Eyal approached the farm from the east on the road running along the southern border of the property. The farmhouse and the other occupied structures were all positioned on the eastern portion of the rectangular property. A thin stand of eucalyptus trees lined the boundary between Ansari's plantation and another poorly tended old livestock farm to the east. Eyal and Auggie pulled off the road and into the neighboring field before coming into view of the Ansari property.

"This should be close enough for the remote detonator to trigger the explosives in the shed." Eyal estimated.

"And the garage?" Auggie asked.

"We should be within range for that as well, but let's hold on to that little surprise in case we run into any difficulty."

"Aren't you quite the pessimist?" Auggie teased.

"I prefer realist." Eyal smiled back. "It never hurts to have a contingency plan." He produced two small remote detonators from a bag in the back seat. "This one," he placed one in Auggie's left hand, "will blow the shed, while this one," he placed the other in Auggie's right hand, "will blow the garage. Think you can keep that straight?"

"Shouldn't be a problem, but just in case, hand me a small piece of electrical tape."

Eyal tore a one inch strip of the black tape from a roll in the same duffel bag and handed it to Auggie. Auggie stuck it to the back of the detonator for the explosives that would be placed in the shed.

"Tape blows the shed, no tape blows the garage. Easy as pie." Auggie smiled, running his fingers over the backs of the detonators.

"Now just make sure not to detonate either of them until I give the word. I'd like to make it out of here in one piece."

"Because it would be awful if you weren't around anymore and Annie suddenly needed a shoulder to cry on." Auggie teased.

"Fantastic. Everyone here is trying to kill me. And people wonder why I worked alone for so many years." Eyal grumbled as he got out of the Jeep, grabbed his bag, and made his way through the trees towards the garage.

After planting a small amount of explosives with his own detonator next to the large amount of explosives already rigged in the garage he moved on to the small storage shed off the northeast corner of the house. As he finished planting the remaining contents of duffel around the shed he spotted Joan peeking around the corner of the farmhouse. They silently nodded to each other as he made his way into the shoulder high overgrown sugar cane field and stalked around towards to front of the house.

Everything became eerily still in the darkness around the house. Lights were visible in multiple windows around drawn curtains. A few mercenaries sat in old wooden rocking chairs on the front porch flanking the front door. A soft breeze rustled the sugar cane. Then the stillness was broken as a few agitated goats ran out of the cane field into the front yard. The guards jumped to their feet and started yelling into the house. In short order another five men rushed out to join them. They started towards the cane field with their guns drawn.

Eyal sat quietly watching after having spooked the goats and waited. As the men were nearly at the edge of the sugar cane he whispered into his comm. "Now Auggie. Blow the shed now." Two seconds later the shed erupted. The sound of the blast made all the men duck and turn back toward the location of the explosion. Chaos ensued and Eyal used the confusion to begin advancing unseen toward the house. He noticed that their estimate on numbers had been quite off, as he could now count at least fifteen men running around in the melee. As he was about to break through into the cleared yard he saw two more people step onto the front porch dragging a third.

"Eyal Lavin?" A voice that he recognized as Omar Ansari called out.

Then the second person moved to where the porch light illuminated him and his captive, and Eyal caught his first glimpse of Annie. She was disheveled and her hands were tied behind her back, but she seemed generally alright. She resisted slightly, but wasn't putting up much of a struggle.

"I know you're out there." Ansari called again. "Why don't you show yourself so that we may have a conversation like civilized gentlemen."

Eyal stepped out to where he could be seen. "Don't fool yourself into thinking there is anything civilized about what you have done."

"Ah, Mr. Lavin. So glad that you could join us." Ansari smiled as a few of his men began to advance on Eyal.

Eyal quickly let loose a few shots that landed immediately in front of the feet of the men walking towards him and stopped their advance. "This is not a social call Ansari. You are going to release Annie and we are going to leave, or you and all these men are going to die. Do I make myself clear?" Guns were trained on him now, and there was no decent cover between him and the porch.

Omar laughed. "Such confidence in the face of such overwhelming odds."

"If you're that confident that you have everything under control, you have obviously underestimated the situation." Eyal glared back.

"I believe you are the one that has overestimated yourself and your little team." Just then a few more men appeared on the porch dragging Auggie unwillingly with them.

Annie panicked when she saw Auggie dragged onto the porch. Eyal was nearly surrounded by a half dozen armed men and if they now had Auggie too, it looked like this rescue mission was over. As Auggie was shoved past her he turned and nearly looked her straight in the eyes.

In a strong voice that held no uncertainty he addressed her. "Walker, it's going to be alright. Hang in there."

She knew that voice. He wasn't simply placating her. He was trying to let her know that there was still some part of their plan in play. She continued to strain against her bindings and the man holding her to keep up the appearance, but she had calmed somewhat. The man restraining her was the same one that had stayed in the room guarding her all day, and he seemed to like to watch her squirm. He was one of Ansari's personal entourage and he scared her more than any of the other locally hired men running around.

"But enough with the pretense." Ansari glared at Eyal triumphantly once Auggie was out of sight.

"Fine. You wanted me. Here I am. Let her go." Eyal demanded, holstered his pistol, and held up his hands. The men that had surrounded him quickly began to approach now that his weapon was no longer drawn.

"Unfortunately, I may not have been entirely forthright with you when I left that little message with the CIA. You see, you have taken something from me that has caused me great pain. It seems only fitting that before I put you out of my misery, you should have to suffer as I have. You should get to know the pain of losing someone you care dearly about and knowing that there was nothing you could do to save them. I think that making you watch as I put a bullet in this young lady's skull should do the trick. Then we'll deal with your handicapped friend."

Just then the man holding Annie tightened his grip to the point of making her shoulders ache and Ansari produced a revolver from a holster clipped to his belt and began to take his aim at Annie.

Then everything happened at once and it was hard for anyone to keep track of what was going on.

Realizing that Ansari was second's away from shooting her at close range, Annie fought back in every way that she could. She slammed her head backwards into the skull of her captor and was fairly certain she felt his nose break. Then she immediately stomped her heel into the inseam of his foot as hard as she could. As he reflexively bent over slightly at the waist, she used the momentum to attempt to hurl him over her shoulder and to the ground. However his grip on her was too tight and he took her down with him. She heard shots fire at close range, but couldn't tell where they came from and didn't feel any of them hit her. The porch was a giant commotion as she saw other men rushing to join them. She was scrambling out from under the weight of the man she had attempted to take down when she heard Ansari yell "Get her back inside." Then her world suddenly went black again.

Eyal, realizing the grave peril that Annie was in pulled the guns from both of his shoulder holsters and began firing with both hands at the men that were now only a step away from him. Two went down before a third managed to close the gap and grab his left arm. Eyal swung his right fist and connected the butt of the gun with the man's temple. As that one fell, another grabbed his shoulders from behind and spun Eyal around. The mercenary grabbed his arms and held them behind his back as another approached and sucker punched him in the stomach. Eyal quickly recovered and kneed the man in the groin. As he doubled over, Eyal landed another blow from his knee into the man's face. Then he squeezed the trigger on the gun still clutched in his right hand. It shot the man behind him in the leg. Then he dropped his weight and flung the man holding his arms over his shoulder onto the ground. He kicked him in the gut, then in the face before leaving him unconscious. The only attacker left stood about three paces back and brandished a large hunting knife. He stood in a crouched attack stance. Eyal raised an eyebrow and glared at the man. "Have you seriously never heard the one about bringing a knife to a gun fight?" At that the man lunged at him, but Eyal got a shot off before he was within arm's distance and the man fell to the ground. Eyal shook his head briefly, realizing that it really must be getting hard to find good help these days, and looked up toward the front porch for the first time since the scuffle began. Ansari and Annie were gone. The body of the man that had held Annie lay unmoving near the door. Keeping both hand guns out and ready, he darted toward the house as quickly as possible.

Auggie had heard Omar's pronouncement as he was being ushered into an empty room. He had a good idea where the two men guarding him were standing, and quickly dropped low and executed a sweeper kick that knocked one of the men off his feet. He quickly stood and sent an elbow backwards into the other man's gut as he approached. That man recovered and got a forearm against Auggie's neck. He pushed Auggie backwards into the room and slammed the door shut behind them. Auggie could hear some kind of deadbolt slide shut, and based on the breathing, he assumed the two guards were still in the room with him. "Two against one? And I'm blind!" He pleaded. "That's hardly a fair fight... for you…" He sneered at the two men approaching him.

Joan had waited quietly in the shadows since making contact with Eyal. She had been expecting the explosion, but it was still enough force to nearly knock her off her feet. She remained hidden as six or seven men darted from the back door. Once there was enough of a pause and everyone's attentions were directed elsewhere she crept around the corner and snuck in the back door. The farmhouse was large, at least 3,500 square feet. She systematically moved through the back part of the house clearing rooms, looking for Annie, and diving into closets and alcoves to avoid detection. It wasn't long before she heard a decent commotion headed down a nearby hallway toward the front of the house. As Omar Ansari verbally baited Eyal from the porch she slowly approached. She was just entering the main hallway that lead straight to the front door when the dragged Auggie inside. She pressed herself back into one of the doorways and planned to release Auggie as soon as his guards left the room they were attempting to usher him into. Then she heard Omar announce that he planned to shoot Annie. She dove into the hallway, prepared to face off with the men guarding Auggie, but she was surprised to see one forcing Auggie backwards into the room and another jumping up from the ground to follow. They slammed the door behind them as she rushed past, unnoticed, toward the front door. Through the screen door she saw Annie attempt to flip the man holding her. As they both went down he landed on top of her. He attempted to sit up and it gave Joan her first clean shot. She took it and the man fell back down on top of Annie. Unsure where the shot had come from, Omar looked panicked. He wheeled around in confusion as two men came running from around the side of the house and joined him on the porch. Joan heard the gunshots from the front yard and chanced a look out towards Eyal. She saw him handling his own against the handful of attackers still standing. She attempted to line up a shot on Ansari, but didn't have a clear view through the screen door. His lofty position compromised, he quickly instructed his henchmen to get Annie back inside. One moved towards her and then the other one stepped into her line of site. She couldn't see what he did to her, but she was unconscious seconds later. Joan barely had time to dive out of the way and down an adjoining corridor as Ansari burst into the house, followed by the other two men dragging Annie. She watched as Omar took the hallway to the left while the other men dragged Annie off to the right. She debated which way to go. Retrieving Annie was their primary objective, but if they didn't get to Ansari, it would remain open season on the entire team, and this whole ordeal wouldn't really be over. She attempted to weigh her options rationally, but in the end she veered right when she came to the intersection in the hallway. Her gut had decided for her.

She watched from an empty doorway as one of the two men she'd seen dragging Annie emerged from a room and closed the door behind him. Once he was out of sight Joan crept up the hallway to the room. Gun in her raised hand, she knocked confidently on the door. As the other man answered and cracked the door open about a foot, Joan didn't hesitate and slammed the butt of her gun down on his forehead. He crumpled to the ground in the doorway. She quickly darted into the room and dragged the body back and off to the side before closing the door behind her.

It was a dimly lit interior room with no windows or doors other than the one she'd come in through. Most importantly, Annie sat slumped in a chair located at the back of the room. She was tied to the chair with her wrists secured behind the back of it. She pulled a knife from where she had strapped it to her ankle and began to work on Annie's bindings. She had barely finished cutting the restraints securing Annie's legs to the chair when she heard the door open behind her. She turned just in time to see a man step through the door with his gun trained on her. There wasn't any time to react, let alone pull her own gun, before she heard the shot. To her surprise, instead of feeling the searing pain of a bullet ripping flesh, she saw the man in the doorway drop. A second later Eyal appeared in the doorway, lowering his weapon. He quickly entered the room, stepping over the would-be shooter's body. He leant down, picked up the man's gun where it had fallen from his hand a foot or two away, and shoved the barrel into the back of his pants. Then he quickly made his way over to Joan and a still unconscious Annie.

"Thanks." Joan acknowledged

"Not necessary." He smiled at her. "Let's just say that I'd hate to see what your husband would do to me if I failed to return you in one piece." Then he stepped to the side of the chair and began to scoop Annie into his arms as Joan cut the final bindings along the back of the chair.

His attention was so focused on Annie that he didn't see the next gunman step into the room. He registered the movement in the doorway as he picked up Annie's limp form and turned towards the door.

"Stop!" The man yelled as he raised his pistol at them.

Eyal froze and his body partially blocked the man's view of Joan. She quickly used it to her advantage. She grabbed the grip of the gun protruding from the back of Eyal's pants, pulled it to her level of sight, and let loose three shots around his shoulder in quick succession.

Eyal was shocked to see three small dark circles appear over the man's heart and quickly expand. The unwitting henchman dropped to the ground a second later, having never even had a chance to fire his raised weapon.

They wasted no more time running to the door.

"I suppose that I am now in your debt." Eyal spoke softly as Joan peeked through the doorway and cleared the hallway.

Joan led the way and kept a watchful eye on all doorways and blind corners. "Oh no. That was purely for my benefit." She whispered in between schooled breaths. "I've seen what she's like when she thinks you're dead. If she woke up and found out I let you get shot… There would be no living with her." Joan shook her head and they both smiled at each other.

Eyal used the arm he had cradled under Annie's arms to reach around and hit the comm button on his ear piece. "Auggie, where are you?"

His voice crackled back across the radios. "First room on the right in the hallway straight off the front door."

"Hang tight, friend. We're coming to you." Eyal responded.

"Annie?" He called back.

"We've got her. She's knocked out but otherwise ok." Joan responded.

Then a mumbling sound came from the blonde operative in Eyal's arms. "I'm not knocked out. It's just fun to make him do all the work for once."

She started to shift around and they stepped into an alcove off of the hallway. "Welcome back Neshama. Do you think you can stand?" He smiled down at her.

She nodded back up at him. He carefully let her slide out of his arms and place her feet on the ground. She was a little wobbly as she attempted to hold up her own weight, and briefly braced against the wall. Eyal instantly tried to take her back in his arms, but she waved him off. "I'm fine." She did seem to be regaining her bearings rather quickly. "Go get Auggie."

"I'll stay here with her." Joan offered. "Radio when you've got Auggie and we'll meet you out back."

Eyal nodded and stalked off down the hallway.

Annie was doing better, but still didn't seem to be entirely with it. "So… Joan… you're here? Huh... Can't say I saw this coming."

"That was kind of the point." She smiled at Annie and placed a reassuring hand on her arm. She wasn't sure if the younger operative had been drugged or concussed, but she figured that it was best to keep her talking and attempting to improve her alertness. "So My Hebrew is a little rusty. What is that name that Eyal called you? I've heard him use it before."

"Neshama?" Annie couldn't stop the slight smile from spreading across her face as she said it. "Literally it translates to 'soul', but it's also used as a term of endearment for someone that you consider to be 'your soul' or 'from the same soul'." Annie rattled it off as if she had just been asked a question in the fifth grade vocabulary bee.

Joan found it funny that she didn't seem to read much into the very personal nick name. "So when did he first start calling you 'his soul'?" She was curious about their relationship and also felt that the question would be a good way to ensure that Annie's mental capacity for recall was returning.

Annie paused and seemed to consider the question for a moment and that subconscious smile returned to her lips. "Sometime between jerry-rigging a police scanner and stitching up my shrapnel wound during dinner."

Joan couldn't remember any recent mission she had sent them on where Annie had been that wounded. She was a little afraid that Annie might be having some memory lapses, which could indicate something more serious. With concern in her voice she asked, "Annie, I don't remember sending you two on any op where you were injured by shrapnel."

Annie seemed stable and rational enough. Then Joan realized the slightly bashful undertone when she responded, "That's because you didn't send _us_. You only sent me."

Joan realized that Annie wasn't having trouble remembering, she was being intentionally vague. "And exactly what op would that have been?" It was more curiosity than anything else at this point. How long had Eyal considered her to be his… something that essentially translated to "soul mate"?

"Yeah… umm… so you remember that compromised brush pass in Zurich?" Annie more or less coughed out.

Joan tried not to look shocked, but wasn't sure she pulled it off.

"It was sarcastic." Annie quickly covered. "He had just nearly killed me, I wanted to kill him." Joan was giving her a look that indicated that she wasn't buying it. "Then we started getting to know each other and we kept running into each other and it just kind of stuck."

"When we get back to Langley I think we're going to have to have a little talk about the thoroughness of your post-op reports." Joan tried to keep up a stern face, but eventually a smile and a snicker cracked through. Sometimes the younger operative reminded her so much of herself at that age it was scary. "You don't want to know what nickname Arthur gave me on our first mission together."

"Actually, now I really do." Annie smiled at her boss and mentor.

…

Eyal stalked away from Annie and Joan and down the hallway. Leaving Annie behind after they had just gotten her back was harder than he wanted to admit, but he needed to get Auggie. He followed the hallways and thankfully didn't encounter any other hired goons. He made it to the room Auggie had described and opened the door as quietly as possible with his gun drawn and ready. Auggie was sitting in a chair in the middle of the room, slightly reclined and relaxing, tossing one of his detonation switches about a foot into the air and catching over and over. Two men lay unconscious in the corner.

"What took you so long?" Auggie asked sarcastically as Eyal approached him and took his elbow.

"If you were that bored, you could have gone and brought the plane around." Eyal smiled and Auggie smiled back.

"Where are Joan and Annie?"

"Waiting for word from us to meet behind the house."

Auggie hit the speaker for his comm and announced, "Ladies, it would seem that Mr. Lavin has forgotten to have our ride valet parked. Looks like we are going to need to head out to the lot and find it ourselves."

"Roger that Auggie." Joan replied through the earphone in his ear.

"Lead the way." Auggie indicated to his friend.

They snuck out of the room and down the hallway towards the back of the house. As they approached an intersection where another corridor crossed the hallway they were traveling down, Auggie stopped short and pulled on Eyal's arm. He stopped just in time to avoid colliding with the hurried henchman power walking down the hallway. Eyal's fist met his face, hard, and he was unconscious before he could realize who he'd nearly run into.

They eventually found their way to the back door and tentatively stepped out onto the deck. He looked to his right and found Annie and Joan with their backs against the wall, hands slightly raised. As he did a quick visual sweep of the landscape in front of him, he saw four well-armed men with their weapons trained directly at them in the yard about five to ten yards from the edge of the porch. The look in his eyes was all it took to convey his plan to the two women. In the same instant he managed to shove Auggie back through the door that had yet to swing shut behind them, then he flung himself at Annie as Joan dove behind a large column for protection as a rain of bullets began. Eyal got off a few shots as he and Annie tumbled to the ground behind a bench and one of the attackers fell. As he knocked the bench over onto its side to provide some cover he felt Annie's hand run down his upper thigh. Before he had a chance to question the incredibly inappropriately timed fondling, she unclipped the 45 caliber he had strapped there and squirmed out from under the weight of his body to take a few shots over the side-long bench. Joan was also intermittently ducking around either side of the thick post and taking shots at their attackers. Another attacker fell as the two others continued to advance.

"Auggie!" Eyal yelled. "This would be a great time for a contingency plan."

"I got it!" He yelled back from just inside the door. Auggie reached into one of his cargo pockets for the last detonator he had retrieved off of his captors that he had incapacitated. He felt for the protective cover, flicked it open, and flipped the toggle switch underneath. Just then the garage exploded into a few thousand pieces that knocked the other men off their feet and showered them with a hail of shrapnel.

Before the gunmen had a chance to recover, Eyal shoved Annie into a standing position and Joan reached out for her. The two women locked hands and instinctively made a break through the small patches of ignited lawn towards the partial cover of the overgrown sugar cane.

Auggie had a pretty good idea what was happening, and staying as low as possible, pushed the back door open and joined Eyal on the porch. Eyal grabbed his right arm and the two took off along the same path that the women had. One of the injured men on the ground began to get up and lunged towards Eyal as they passed, but without breaking stride Eyal managed to get off a shot that returned the man to the ground, where he stayed for good. They dodged and weaved through the cane field and heard a few random pot-shot being taken in their general direction, but no one seemed to have followed.

"Looks like we've got a plane to catch." Eyal muttered to Auggie as they reached the hangar side door. They entered the hangar as Annie pulled the tarp off the small plane and Joan began a quick pre-flight check.

Eyal stood watch at the door. He took a few shots when he saw two forms approaching through the sugar cane. One man fell and the other turned and ran in the opposite direction.

That was when Annie stopped and asked, "Did anybody take out Ansari?" They all looked to each other and realized that they had never even seen the man since his threats on the front porch.

"We've got Annie. That's what we came for." Auggie insisted. "Let's just get out of here."

Annie and Joan both wore strikingly similar concerned facial expressions. Annie spoke up. "If he gets away with this, what's to stop him from trying this again, or just killing any of us?"

"I know." Eyal responded. "I'll go. You just be ready to get out of here on my signal." He grabbed the black back pack Joan had stashed in the corner under some tarps earlier that evening.

"What's the signal?" Annie asked.

"Oh, you'll know it when you see it." Auggie answered.

Before Annie could say anything to try to talk Eyal out of doing this alone, he was gone.

…

Eyal crept up to the front of the house and wondered how hard it would be to find Ansari. He slowly cracked open the door and froze at the sight that greeted him.

"I knew it would be you that came back to finish the job." Omar Ansari smiled at him from the foyer. A single injured mercenary hunched by his side.

As the hired gun weakly raised a pistol at him, Eyal shot the man's hand without a second's hesitation. The gun went flying and the man dropped to the ground clutching his crippled hand. Eyal turned his focus back to the apparently unarmed Ansari.

"You didn't just come after me, you involved Annie in this. Did you think I would just let you walk after that?" He growled, gun trained on center mass.

"It is unfortunate that my son managed to stumble onto your Achilles's heel. He may have been a spoiled child that never quite seemed to gain a knack for the enterprises required to fulfill the legacy I would have left him, but he was still my son. I merely wanted you to feel the loss of someone you hold dear, as I have." He chuckled slightly and added, "And she made such an attractive piece of collateral damage."

Eyal remained silent, but his grip on his Sig 9 mm tightened perceptibly at Omar's words.

"Oh you may get rid of me, but you have to realize that there will be other threats. The life you lead leaves everyone in it at risk. Your attachment to her will be the cause of her death someday. I can guarantee you that as surely as I know that you are about to kill me." He looked Eyal square in the eyes. "But I think you already know that. Don't you?"

Eyal's response was a double pull of the trigger in his hand. Omar dropped to the floor with two bullet wounds in his forehead and not another word.

Eyal turned to the man cowering on the ground next to where Ansari's body fell. "I suggest you leave if you wish to remain alive." The man scurried out the door as quickly as his injuries would allow. Eyal deliberately removed the back pack he was wearing and produced a few bricks of C4 and a detonator. After placing them around the center of the house and dragging Ansari's body so that it would undoubtedly be obliterated by the explosion, he calmly exited the building.

The small Cessna had just taxied to the portion of the runway nearest the house, and he jogged the hundred or so yards over to it. Annie opened the side door and he quickly climbed in beside her in the back row of seats. Joan looked comfortable in the pilot's seat, and Auggie announced "In preparation for departure, I'm going to need you all to bring your seat backs and tray tables to their full upright and locked positions."

As they began to accelerate down the dirt strip Eyal added, "It's about to get a little bumpy." He fished a transponder out of his bag and flipped the toggle switch just as the plane lifted into the air. The house behind them erupted into an explosion of fire and debris as they drifted off over the sugar cane fields.

"That was the signal." Auggie smiled back at Annie.

She smiled back at him as they flew smoothly towards the private field in Port Au Prince where their jet awaited their return.

Joan looked back briefly at Eyal and yelled over the sound of the propellers, "Ansari?"

"Neutralized." Was his response.

She nodded and returned her attention to the air space in front of her.

They landed safely at the executive airport about fifteen minutes later and quickly boarded the waiting jet. Once aboard and safely back in the air, they all removed their gear and took turns using the lavatory to change into civilian clothes.

About an hour later, Annie sat curled up in the seat next to Eyal. He kept his arm around her shoulders and she rested her head on his chest. Sleep had come quickly to her once the adrenaline had worn off. He gently grazed his fingers along her hairline, noticing the bruises along the side of her head, hidden by her hair. They were undoubtedly the result of the struggles they had heard during her ransom call and from when she fought back on the porch. The patches of sensitive purple flesh made him wish that he could kill Ansari again. She shifted slightly in her sleep and snuggled closer to him. He knew that their position was bordering on inappropriate, but he didn't actually care at the moment. If Joan noticed the too intimate embrace, she said nothing about it. He looked down at Annie and realized how comforted and safe being in his arms obviously made her feel. How ironic, since it was entirely because of him that she had nearly been killed. He had no illusions about how deep his feelings ran for the woman under his arm, but now after everything that had happened between them in the last forty-eight hours, he was beginning to believe that just maybe she really did have some of the same feelings towards him. He frowned, realizing how unfortunate that was, considering what he was going to have to do to her when they got back.

TBC…

**A/N: The next chapter is already mostly written, so hopefully won't take too long to get it up. Thanks for hanging in there with this one.**

**Next time on Covert Affairs: Next Tuesday – An excerpt:**

"**The driving rain drenching her hair and clothes didn't even register as she approached him. "Was this all some kind of game for you? Was anything you ever said to me real at all? If you meant even one word of it, how could you do this?" She yelled at him and shoved his chest with both her hands.**

**He looked down at her with a pained expression…"**

Some of my coworkers and I started a drinking club where we try different specialty cocktails each week (after hours of course). This week I did Sazeracs. They were a pretty big hit. And in case anyone out there wants to drink along with us… CJ's recipe for the perfect Kismet Sazerac:

Start by storing your whiskey and absinthe in the freezer for a few days… Eyal wasn't lying about this drink needing to be ice cold.

Crack some ice in your shaker then add:  
2 oz Whiskey (supposed to be rye whiskey, but Jack Daniels worked very nicely for me)  
2 oz Absinthe (or absinthe substitute like Pernod depending on availability where you live)  
1 oz Simple Syrup  
1 tsp Peychaud's Bitters  
Shake and serve in a chilled martini glass.

Pairs nicely with sweet potato French fries sprinkled with black truffle salt if you need a snack to go along with it.


	7. Demons

**A/N: Everyone seems pretty worried about what's going to happen in this chapter. The only clue I'm going to give you is that this chapter earns its M rating. Just a warning.**

They say it's what you make  
I say it's up to fate  
It's woven in my soul  
I need to let you go

Your eyes, they shine so bright  
I want to save their light  
I can't escape this now  
Unless you show me how

When you feel my heat  
Look into my eyes  
It's where my demons hide  
Don't get too close  
It's dark inside  
It's where my demons hide

**Demons – Imagine Dragons**

Annie was a little surprised when Eyal parked the car and got out with her instead of dropping her at the front door to her building. The trip from Langley had been made largely in silence. In contrast, the drive from the airfield where their jet had landed to Langley had been rather celebratory after their successful mission, but when she thought back on that, it had been mostly Auggie's enthusiasm leading the four of them.

Annie didn't give an invitation for him to join her in her apartment, but it was generally implied when she didn't question him about parking the car. The wind had picked up during the drive and the first few droplets of rain were beginning to fall as they got out of the vehicle. If she had to guess, Annie was pretty sure a storm was rolling in.

He silently followed her into the building and to her apartment. She stopped at the door and realized that she didn't have her keys. "Can you believe it? In the haste of being kidnapped I forgot to take my keys with me last night. Would you care to do the honors?"

He smirked at her slightly and quickly picked the lock. She flicked on the lights as they walked in, kicked off her sneakers, and went straight over to her junk drawer in the kitchen. She fished around for a few seconds and then triumphantly looked up at him holding a spare key.

She was a little confused as to why he still stood in the foyer with his coat and shoes on. He was notorious for making himself at home in her apartment normally before she could even finish locking the door behind them.

"Here." She took his hand, uncurled the fingers, and deposited the key into his palm before wrapping his fingers closed around it. "Now the next time I hear someone picking the lock on my front door in the middle of the night I won't just assume it's you." She smiled cheekily up at him.

He closed his hand around the small metal object hard enough that the edges began to dig into the skin. He knew what he had come here to do, but he had his misgivings the whole way to her apartment and wasn't sure that he could follow through. Then what she had just said pushed him over the edge. He had assumed that Omar's men had picked the lock to gain access to her apartment, but to hear that she ignored the potential threat of something as ominous as someone picking her front door lock at four am because she assumed it was him was too much.

"Annie, I can't take this." He put the key back down on the counter.

She looked up at him, more than a little confused. His life's goal for the past few months had been sneaking into her apartment. Now not only was she handing him the means to do so, but an implied permission to use it any time he wanted. He should have been acting like she had just handed him the Holy Grail. Maybe she hadn't been clear enough. She picked up the key and placed it in his jacket pocket. "Yes, you can. And I suggest you use it. I think Mrs. Feinstein down the hall has seen you picking the lock before and she's getting suspicious." She smiled.

He gave up on trying to refuse the key and just left it in his pocket. He could always just leave it on her desk when he returned to the DPD to clean out his. "Annie…" He tried to make her hold still.

Annie was confused by Eyal's rather cold behavior, but it was three o'clock in the morning and it had been a long emotional day. She hadn't really had a relaxing Saturday herself, and she was really just hoping to curl up on the couch, drink a beer, watch a little television, and try to forget the more traumatic parts of the day. With the sounds of the storm starting to swirl outside her window she really hoped that Eyal would be inclined to join her on the couch. She was surprised at how ok she actually felt. Maybe it was because she hadn't been held captive very long, or because everyone had instantly come for her and no one got hurt, but she still found it odd that he seemed to be more emotionally impacted by her abduction than she was. A lot had happened between them in the last forty-eight hours. At some point they were going to have to address all of it, but tonight she just wished he would hang around and provide that safe protected feeling she only found lately when she was in his close proximity.

She stepped over to the refrigerator and pulled out two bottles of Guinness. She held one out towards him and waggled the bottle enticingly. In a move eerily similar to the one he had perpetrated just over twenty-four hours earlier, he took both bottles from her hands and set them on the counter out of her reach.

"Ok. Really?" She spat out frustratedly. "It's a beer, not a proposition."

"Annie, I'm leaving."

"Eyal, this is ridiculous. You're going home because I offered you a beer?"

"No Annie. I mean I'm leaving the CIA. Leaving the US."

Annie was floored. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm done with this."

"This?" Annie questioned.

"This." He gestured back and forth between them. "This partnership. Constantly having to save you."

"Excuse me?" Annie gaped at him.

"Would you like me to say it in a different language?" He glared down at her. "There is a reason I always worked alone. I'm sick of having to take care of you."

The look on her face had become rather pitiful. She grabbed at the shoulder of his coat. "Eyal? Where is this coming from?"

"Really Annie? How many more times do you expect me to come charging in to save you like your white knight? I know it's been the same ever since Zurich, but eventually you're going to need to learn to take care of yourself."

"So… what? Everything since Zurich has just been an act? You've been playing me this whole time? Next you're going to say that you really are a Mossad double agent."

He took her hand from his coat and held it in his for a moment. "Look kid, don't get me wrong. I like you well enough, but this is spycraft. I'm tired of being your babysitter."

"Babysitter?" She scoffed and pulled her hand out of his.

"What would you call the way I've had to look out for you for the last few years?"

"Oh, I don't know. How about friend? Or partner?" He started to look slightly shamed so she continued. "And don't pretend that this has been entirely one-sided. I seem to remember quite a few times I saved your life."

Eyal looked down into her eyes. With her barefoot, their height difference was profound. Her pleading was wearing his defenses tenuously thin. All he wanted was to lean down, kiss her, and pull her into his arms. He made himself focus on Ansari's final words. Her association with him would lead to her death. Her job may be dangerous, but being personally involved in his life did make the risk exponentially worse. Of all the threats he protected her from, he posed the greatest. Fortunately, it was a threat he could irrevocably neutralize. Unfortunately, that meant removing himself from her life permanently. As he looked into the confused eyes staring back up at him, he would have traded anything for a threat he could neutralize with a gun or a well-placed brick of C4. He had tried to lie to her and convince her that he had betrayed her trust once before and it had nearly broken him. He'd felt so bad that he'd quit Mossad and devoted himself to protecting her. The irony was that now the best way to protect her was to lie to her again. He needed to get away from her before he lost his nerve.

"Goodbye Annie Walker." He turned abruptly and left the apartment.

She shuddered at the sound of her door closing behind him. She was dumbfounded. She stood motionless, mind blank for a solid minute before her brain began to work again. What had just happened? Had he actually expected her to believe anything he had just said? Was there any chance that any of it _was_ true? The only thing she knew for certain was that she'd never know if she just kept standing in her kitchen.

She ran out the door and into the hallway, forgetting to even pull on her sneakers. The light on the elevator indicated that it was just beginning to descend, so she took the stairs. She flew down the three flights as quickly as she could. The lobby of the building was empty by the time she had reached the ground floor. She saw him outside on the curb, coat collar up to block some of the torrential downpour that had started since their return. She ran out the door just as he approached his car parked along the curb.

"Eyal, wait!" She yelled from the building's doorway.

Hearing the fear in her voice, he instantly turned around, instinct overruling intent. "Annie?"

She had to yell for him to hear her over the sound of the pouring rain. "What if Omar had just killed me? Would you still be pretending you don't care?"

His face dropped, he turned back towards her and returned his car keys to his coat pocket. Then he walked back half way to the apartment building door. Annie left the shelter of the building and met him in the middle.

The driving rain drenching her hair and clothes didn't even register as she approached him. "Was this all some kind of game for you? Was anything you ever said to me real at all? If you meant even one word of it, how could you do this?" She yelled at him and shoved his chest with both her hands.

He looked down at her with a pained expression. The rain had begun to soak him through. His dark hair was sodden and a few errant clumps were now hanging downward and sending small rivulets of water down his face. The look in her eyes was a mixture of anger, fear, and hope. It was more than he could take. The rain was coming down so heavily that, even though they were only inches apart, he still had to nearly yell. "Because I'm terrified."

"I've seen you face off against trained assassins, blow up buildings, and take on terrorists. You are the most fearless person I have ever met. How on Earth can you say that this scares you?"

He closed the slight gap between them and raised a hand to her cheek. "If we do this, once we cross this line, then it's real. There's no going back for me. Then what if Ansari had just had you killed, or I hadn't been able to rescue you? If someone comes after you to get to me again…" A shudder, unrelated to the freezing rain that now penetrated both their clothes, shook his shoulders. "I'm not willing to put you at greater risk. If something happened to you… knowing that it was my fault, because you were with me… how could I go on after that?"

She looked into his eyes and questioned him, "How many times have we risked our lives to save each other?" Then she brought her hand up to cover the one on her cheek. "I hate to break it to you, but you're too late. This is already real. What we do is dangerous, and you can't change that. I don't need you to protect me, I just need you."

"Annie…" He started, still sounding conflicted. He dropped his hand from her face, but only broke their eye contact to blink rainwater from his eyes.

She interrupted, "You told me once that we shouldn't fight the current."

"Just let the river take you." He remembered the conversation.

"Stop fighting before it drags both of us under." She pleaded.

"Do you realize what you're asking Annie?" He reached up a hand and brushed a few soaked locks of hair back behind her ear. "I can't do this if you don't…"

She cut him off with very simple but sincere, "I love you, Eyal." She still had to nearly yell it over the rain and she could tell it took him a second to process what she had just said.

Then immediately his lips were on hers. He reached a hand around to the base of her neck under her dripping hair and the other snaked around her waist, pulling her to him. Her hands reached up to cup his face. This time as their tongues met, they held nothing back. Everything else, the rain, the city street around them, was forgotten.

When they finally pulled apart to breathe, they were both out of breath. Eyal rested his forehead on hers and realized that they could see their breath in the air from the wet frigid weather. Just then Annie shivered slightly. He glanced down and realized that she was barefoot.

"Perhaps we should go back inside." He suggested in a breathy voice.

Then she smiled, grabbed the front of his shirt, turned back towards the building, and dragged him behind her. They ran through the lobby, soaking wet, like a pair of lovesick teenagers. She hit the button for the elevator, and while they waited for the door to open, he spun her around and kissed her again. She wrapped her arms around him and he pulled her closer with one hand between her shoulder blades and one on her lower back. The hand on her lower back was just starting to drift further down when the elevator door opened. They jumped apart and attempted to straighten their rumpled and drenched clothing as a few residents stepped out of the elevator past them, giving the pair an odd look. As soon as it was empty they dove into the elevator car and hit the button for her floor and the one to close the doors immediately. Eyal pinned her against the back wall and their mouths collided again. She pushed his coat back off of his shoulders but not past his elbows, effectively pinning his arms at his sides. It was a vulnerable, submissive position for him, but he didn't care. She could do whatever she wanted to him. Always could. His trust in her was that complete. He gripped her hips, the only part of her that his restrained hands could still reach, and continued kissing her. She pulled his shirt from his waist band and started unbuttoning. She was finished with the buttons and pulling at the hem of his undershirt when the elevator door opened on her floor. He shrugged his coat back onto his shoulders and took her hand in his. They speed walked down the hallway, Annie having to take the occasional step at a jog to keep up with the pace that his longer legs allowed. When they reached her door she stopped to fish the key she had just given him out of his jacket pocket. As she briefly focused on unlocking the door he stepped up behind her, wrapped his arms around her waist and started kissing the side of her neck. The act unfocussed her attention and the door lock was nearly forgotten.

"If you don't get it opened soon, I'm going to kick it in." He whispered in her ear.

"Then stop distracting me." She grumbled in return.

His response was to lightly rake his teeth over the earlobe they had been resting near.

"That is definitely distracting." She moaned as her neck arched back reflexively.

He reached around her, took the key from her fingers, and unlocked the door as he traced firm kisses and gentle nips down the side of her neck.

She mumbled "Show off" as he pushed the door open.

"Oh, you haven't seen anything yet." He panted suggestively in her ear again as they spilled into her apartment.

Eyal closed the door behind him and was quickly pinned back against it. She slid the soaked coat and shirt off his shoulders and he let them fall to the floor in a wet heap.

"So you're not the least bit concerned about living up to all the innuendo and hype you've built up over the last three and a half years?" She teased playfully between the kisses she was trailing down the front of his neck.

"With you Neshama, never." He grabbed her and quickly spun them so that he had her pinned against the door. He kissed her lips, and then she took his bottom lip in her mouth and slowly drew it through her teeth. His hands dropped from her waist to her upper thighs and he effortlessly lifted her so that she straddled him. She wrapped her legs around his waist and clung to his shoulders, never removing her lips from his.

He pulled away from the door and began to steer them towards the bedroom as he pulled off her soaked and dirty socks. With his one hand still supporting her weight, he let the other trail up her back. She broke their kiss to pull off her t shirt in a single fluid motion. He dropped his head to kiss along her bare collar bone and painstakingly let his lips drift down toward her cleavage. She raked her fingers through his sodden hair and scratched at the nape of his neck. He released a sound against her chest that was a carnal mixture of a purr and a growl as he finished carrying her to the bedroom. When his knees bumped the front of the bed, he kicked his shoes off and crawled onto it before leaning her back slowly to rest against the comforter. As he released his hold on her, his hands began to focus on the button and zipper of her jeans. They were quickly undone and he sat back on the bed, pulling the pants down the length of her shapely legs as he went. As he leaned back down over her, she pulled his undershirt off over his head and flung it heedlessly onto the floor. The feeling of her warm skin pressed so fully against his bare chest as he laid down on top of her nearly pushed him over the edge. He pulled his lips away from her neck and suddenly focused his attention on the bed. He lifted the pillows and looked under them, then pulled the covers back slightly, continuing his odd inspection.

"What are you doing?" Annie asked, concerned, as he leaned over and began to rifle through the top drawer of her night stand.

"Just ensuring that you aren't planning to zip tie me to the headboard and leave again." He laughed and returned his attention to the soft skin just behind her right ear.

"Very funny." She smiled and began unfastening his jeans. "If you want, we could always get them out later."

He lifted his head to catch her sly smile before devouring her mouth. She pushed the jeans down past his hips then slid a bare foot up his thigh and used it to drag the pants down to his ankles, He reached down, finished pulling them off, and took his drenched socks off with them. She was giggling at him when he brought his face back up to hers.

"So, we're finally getting naked, and this the only time I've actually seen you wearing underwear." She lightly snapped the waistband of the black boxer briefs. "Is there any rhyme or reason as to when this happens, or is more of an 'as the mood strikes you' kind of thing?"

He rolled his eyes at her and briefly kissed her to stop the laughter. "Always on rescue missions, for luck." She shot him a disbelieving look before he added with a smile, "You don't believe me? These are actually my lucky rescuing Annie underwear. If you'd simply given into my charms earlier there are plenty of other occasions on which you would have seen them."

"Well, tonight I think you're going to be getting plenty lucky without them." Holding his eye contact, she kissed him and slowly pulled that last remaining article of clothing down his thighs.

He kicked the underwear off the rest of the way and then didn't fight her as she flipped them over together so that she was on top. His hands immediately went to her back, and it wasn't long before her bra and underwear joined the rest of their clothes on her floor.

The driving rain pelted against her bedroom window and the wind could be heard whistling around the exterior of the building. The sounds of the storm's power echoing through the apartment only drove their need.

She rolled slightly so that she was more draped across his side than lying directly on top of him. They both paused to enjoy the sights of the naked forms in front of them. He gently brought a hand to cup her breast. His soft touch over her nipple became a much firmer squeeze as she traced her fingertips over the length of his erection.

Normally he would have wanted to take his time with a new lover, to draw out every lingering touch to enhance the arousal and the sensations, but like everything else in his life, it was different when it involved Annie. The past two months had been essentially nothing but foreplay. Now that he finally had her naked in bed with him, rubbing him the way that she was, the time for patience and taking things slowly appeared to have long past. He rolled over so that he was on top of her again.

She slid her hand down between their bodies and gripped his fully aroused penis, her hand hold moving deliberately along the length of it.

"Do we need to be concerned with protection?" He asked smoothly in her ear between sharp intakes of air.

"I don't think so. I mean we're both really good shots and there are at least three guns in this apartment right now, one of them in the nightstand right there."

He glared at her. "You know what I mean."

"I know." She smiled up at him, so proud that for once he was being the responsible adult in their partnership. "I'm on the shot every six months, pretty standard contraception for all female operatives working in the field. So unless you're riddled with venereal diseases that I don't know about…"

He rolled his eyes and silenced her with a kiss. He repositioned himself in top of her, and looked down into his eyes with concern. "This is going to change things… between us… at work. Are you sure that's what you want?" He was giving her one last out if she wanted it.

She could hear the sounds of the storm continuing on outside as she brought her hands up and wrapped them around the back of his neck and looked him straight in the eyes. "You are what I want, Eyal. Everything else… we've been able to deal with a lot more than that. As long as we're in this together I know we can work it all out." She pulled his lips down to hers. "Are you sure it's what _you_ want?"

He held her eye contact and whispered, "Neshama." He answered by driving his hips forward and pushing into her. His neck arched back reflexively at the sensation of the penetration, and he pushed forward until he was completely buried within her.

She cried out his name as he pulled back and impaled himself in her again. He moved cautiously within her at first, but as soon as he began to develop a rhythm, she matched it grinding back against him. Their confidence slowly built, and they quickly found that they made love the same way they did nearly everything else. They explored and teased while interjecting occasional sarcastic quips between their moans of pleasure. They switched positions, and jockeyed for dominance and control, all while maintaining a synchronicity that bordered on being telepathic. As in the rest of their life, Eyal only ever pretended to be in charge. He yielded to, if not anticipated, her desires and did everything he could to accommodate her. They took full advantage of their familiarity with each other's bodies for a length of time that seemed both fleeting and to be stretching on indefinitely. Eventually their movements became faster and more forceful with a rising sense of urgency.

Annie didn't have to say anything as she felt herself approaching climax, as she could tell from the tension in his body that he was nearly there too. He happened to have ended up on top of her at this point in their venture and he used his leverage to drive into her forcefully a few more times. She found her release and murmured his name into his mouth as her senses all seemed to implode at once. The contraction of her body around him and the way she moaned his name was enough to take him over the edge. He unconsciously let slip a soft mewling sound as he spilled into her with a few last erratic uncontrolled thrusts. Once he had finished, he collapsed onto the bed beside her, arm still draped over her stomach, completely spent.

"Wow." It was all Annie could utter as the both came down together.

He nuzzled against the side of her neck. "It's like I've always told you Neshama, everything is better when you are in Israel. Or in this case, some of Israel is in…"

She swatted at him before he could finish the lewd sentence, but still laughed.

Annie found it oddly comforting that the innuendo and inappropriate commentary that was the crux of their friendship over the past years still managed to remain even after they finally resolved their sexual tension.

They lay still together for a while, physically and emotionally exhausted from everything that had happened in the past few days. Safely ensconced in each other's arms, the sounds of the receding storm ushered on the sleep that had eluded them for the past few nights.

…

A few hours later, Eyal woke first and instinctively pulled the warm body spooned up against him closer. They were on their sides and she was curled up in front of him under the covers. The smell of her hair and her skin filled his nostrils as he inhaled and he realized that certain parts of his mind and body were already wide awake. They rain had passed and a hint of grey was starting to break through the darkness along the horizon. He decided to take full advantage of what little bit of this night they had left. His right arm was under her waist and the hand rested on her lower abdomen. His left hand was holding hers and pulled up against her chest under her chin. He realized that the embrace was somewhat similar to the time he held her overnight in Mexico to keep her from getting sick all over herself. However, this time his intentions extended far beyond the gentle concern of that previous night. He leaned forward and began to plant a few kisses along the side of her neck just behind her ear. Then he removed his left hand from her grip and slowly traced it down her side to rest on her thigh. His right hand began to lightly ghost over all the bare skin within reach. The urgency of their earlier encounter had passed, and now he fully intended to take his time learning every last detail of the magnificent body pressed against his.

Annie woke to the feeling of his lips on her neck and his hands exploring. She moaned softly as the sensations overtook her barely conscious mind. She turned her head and with a little reaching on both their parts she was able to kiss him properly. She nipped at his lips and sucked on his tongue slightly as he continued his intimate caress.

"Good morning." He whispered in her ear with a smile as their lips parted.

"You could say that." She arched back against him as his hand danced over sensitive flesh.

Then he slid his left hand across the front of her thigh and pulled her legs apart slightly as the fingers of his right hand began to explore between her legs. He meticulously tested and catalogued her response to pressure and his smallest movements before dipping inside her and continuing the endeavor. Annie realized that her assumption of what an attentive lover he would be had been drastically underestimated. He pulled her firmly against him as his ministrations made her arch and buck against him. She could feel him smile against her ear each time his actions teased a moan from her throat. Just as she felt the tension of an impending orgasm begin to pool, she registered the feeling of his fingers sliding out of her only to be replaced by the blunt pressure of the tip of his arousal against her entrance. She tilted her hips back slightly as if to give him permission, and he rocked forward into her. He kept his right hand just above where he entered her, controlling the positioning and speed of their movements. After a few tantalizingly slow thrusts and withdraws, he leaned over and kissed her again as he gently turned her onto her stomach.

His pace was calm as he traced kisses from her neck down her back. He kept a hand underneath her on her lower abdomen, pulling her to him and helping to support some of his weight, as the other slid slowly up her side and traced along her shoulders, gently moving her hair to the side so that his lips could find more skin to devour.

Annie had been nearing the brink before he had taken her from behind. It wasn't long before the combination of the way it felt being pinned beneath the weight of his body, feeling the muscles of his chest and abs working and clenching against her back as he moved inside her, and the way his movements were exciting sensitive spots within her that she didn't even previously know where there quickly brought her to a precipice. She moaned and clenched a handful of the sheets as one particularly deep thrust sent her tumbling into the abyss.

He remained seated inside her and rode out the waves of contractions that gripped down on him. He moved slightly with the involuntary spasms, causing her to cry out into her pillow and clench around him even more forcefully. Only once she had gone limp underneath him did he pull out of her and sit back.

She rolled over to stare up at him and wrapped her legs around his thighs. "That was just entirely too easy for you." She smiled up at him slightly awestruck.

He leaned back down over so that he was just barely hovering over her body. "It turns out that most things are easier when you have the right partner." He leaned in further and gently tugged on her earlobe with his teeth as he plunged back inside her.

She let him set the tempo and continued to match him thrust for thrust. Just as he had settled into a rhythm, she decided to turn the tables. Without breaking their stride she managed to roll him onto his back. After giving him a second to gain his bearings she sat back, shifting all her weight down on his hips. He moaned in appreciation and slid his hands up her torso to cup her breasts. She rode him hard for the next few minutes, grinding down on him with all the force she could. He nearly growled with each matched thrust as he came closer and closer to his release. Then she upped the pace to a point that he could barely keep up and resigned to let her take control and do all the work. She raked her nails down his chest as she moved over him and that finally did him in. He made the same soft whimpering sound as before when he began to come inside her. Annie found the fact that she could elicit such a noise from the deadly stone cold assassin beneath her both endearing and erotic. It was enough to tip her over the edge and she found her release just as he finished.

He pulled her down to him and she gladly draped herself over his sweat slicked body and let herself go limp in his arms. He held her protectively and nuzzled the top of her head as she buried her face in the crook of his neck. They lay silently together that way for quite a while and watched as daylight began to fill the room. Eventually Annie stretched and rolled slightly to the side so that she could look up at her partner as he gently ran his fingers through her hair.

"No witty retorts this time?" She smiled up at him.

He smiled at her briefly, but allowed his expression to slowly morph into one of significantly more seriousness and sincerity. "I love you, Annie Walker."

Despite all the thoughts and emotions and concerns that his confession should have elicited, the way that it should have sent her mind into overdrive, she was able to look into his eyes and simply reply, "I love you too." Because she did, and it was possibly the easiest thing she had ever expressed to him.

He leaned in and kissed her, bringing his hands to her cheeks. When they finally pulled apart the smile had returned to his lips. "Now I can finally make you a proper breakfast."

She laughed at him. "I learned a long time ago to never turn down your cooking."

"Should I be concerned that last night was all just some elaborate scheme to sample my world famous shakshouka?"

"And if it was?" She teased.

"I will simply have to start cooking for you every morning." He leaned in and gave her a quick peck on the lips before getting up and out of the bed. It took him a moment of surveying the carnage of clothing strewn across the floor before he located his pants. He pulled the jeans on in a fluid motion and walked out of the bedroom, stopping briefly at the door frame to turn and look at her before continuing on to the kitchen.

Annie pulled the sheet around her and trudged into the bathroom. She showered, dried her hair, and went through the basics of her typical morning routine. When she stepped out of the bathroom with her towel wrapped snugly around her, she noticed that Eyal had straightened up a bit. The bed was made and most of his clothing was piled on one corner of it. She picked up his button-up shirt to lay it out for him in a way that would avoid quite so many wrinkles, but realized that it still smelled like him, even after being soaked earlier that night. She smiled at the familiar and comforting scent, and pulled it on along with a pair of simple cotton underwear. The shirt covered nearly half way down her thighs and she left the top few buttons open.

Then she padded out into the kitchen and was struck by the delicious smells coming from the meal he was preparing. Possibly even more delicious than the smell of the food was the sight of the man cooking it. He stood in her kitchen, monitoring and adjusting his culinary creation, wearing nothing but the pair of jeans. His normally well-manicured hair was mussed and sticking in every direction, including a large cow-lick in the back from where he must have fallen asleep on it while it was still wet. He just looked so comfortable and domestic, it made her melt just a little.

He looked up and caught sight of her wearing nothing but his shirt and a possessive pride nearly overwhelmed him. He almost decided to forego breakfast entirely and just haul her back into the bedroom.

"Smells wonderful." She marveled at him and sauntered into the kitchen. As she stood next to him she couldn't help but to reach up and poke at the flattened clump of hair sticking straight up along the back of his head.

He briefly put the wooden spoon down and swatted at her hand. She giggled at him and he unsuccessfully attempted to flatten the cowlick self-consciously. She stood on her toes and placed a soft kiss on his cheek before opening the refrigerator. She pulled out a few oranges and set about making them fresh squeezed orange juice as he finished the dish he was preparing. She grabbed dishes and silverware and set them on the counter before walking around to take a seat at one of the barstools on the opposite side. He pulled the skillet off of the stove top, turned off the burners, and brought it over to where she was sitting. He doled out the poached eggs floating in a spiced tomato sauce onto each of their plates and stepped around to take the stool beside her.

Around a full mouth, Annie sighed and mumbled, "Seriously. Some day you are going to tell me how you learned to cook like this."

He smiled warmly at her. "Well, this particular recipe I learned from my mother. Shakshouka is a very traditional Israeli breakfast dish. Usually there would also be some humus and fresh bread to go with it, but your kitchen appears to be woefully under-stocked."

"Eventually you'll learn why I always let you cook. With my level of culinary talent, consider yourself lucky that I can even find the kitchen."

They both laughed and quickly finished breakfast. They cleaned up the dishes and then realized that they had nothing left to do. It was Sunday, and since they had originally had the whole weekend blocked off for the Reed op, they had no work responsibilities for another twenty-two hours. It started to get slightly awkward as they both seemed to be weighing the merits of returning to the bedroom for another round versus starting their day. Both also seemed slightly afraid to ask the other about their plans for the day. Neither really wanted to let the other out of their sight, but they also didn't want to come across as too needy or clingy.

"Well, I guess I will head back to my place." Eyal finally announced to break the awkward silence.

"Oh. Ok." Annie tried not to sound disappointed as he pulled on his undershirt and gathered the rest of his clothes.

Eyal put a hand on her cheek and smiled. "So that I can get cleaned up and change clothes. After that, I was wondering if you wanted to come over and we could finally go for that run together."

An insuppressible smile crept across her face. "I would love to."

"Excellent." He smiled back. "Meet me in about two hours?"

"Ok." She agreed as he leaned in and kissed her thoroughly. "I can't believe we're actually going to finally do this." She nearly laughed after they pulled apart.

"We have had some interesting circumstances preempt us in the recent past." He slipped his shoes on and made his way toward the front door with the remainder of his belongings in hand.

"Well, it's only two hours. I'll just run a few quick errands then head over."

"I know how you are… try not to get kidnapped again in the meantime." He grinned and ducked out the door as she swatted at his shoulder.

…

At about 3:00 that afternoon Annie and Eyal bolted the last twenty yards down the hallway to his front door, finishing their foot race around the greater DC metropolitan area. Annie slapped the door first.

"I win!"

"Because I let you." Eyal panted, sweat drenched and out of breath.

"Keep telling yourself that buddy." She smiled back at him between heavy breaths as he opened the door. They walked inside and Eyal produced two bottles of water from the refrigerator and handed one to Annie. She took a seat at the table and he leaned against the counter as they rehydrated and let their heart rates recover.

After a few minutes spent in tired silence, Eyal pushed himself off of the counter and began walking toward his bedroom. He peeled off his long sleeve skin tight thermal running shirt and turned back toward Annie once he got to the doorway. "I'm going to take a shower. You're welcome to join me." He quirked an eyebrow and gave her a mischievous grin before turning back towards the bathroom.

Annie smiled, the invitation instantly reminding her of their first meeting. How much had changed between them since then? She remembered how vehemently she had wanted to strangle him when he'd issued the proposition in that safe house all those years ago. Now the response was… somewhat different.

She heard the shower kick on and waited another minute before silently creeping into the bathroom. His back was toward her and steam was beginning to fill the glass enclosure. She slid out of her clothes and left them in a pile on the floor as she pulled open the shower door and stepped in.

Eyal turned at the motion behind him, that cocky expectant grin still plastered on his face. "So glad you finally decided to join me, Neshama. Took you long enough." He reached hands up to cup her face.

_Yeah, only about three and a half years,_ she thought to herself. "Well, some things are worth the wait." She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and stood up on her toes to kiss him.

**A/N: Hehehe… and you were all so worried about this chapter… :) This ended up a good bit smuttier than anything else I've ever written. Hope it managed to come across as hot and not crass.**

**Next time on Covert Affairs: Next Tuesday – There are no secrets and no down time at the DPD. There's another mission and Annie and Eyal are going to have to deal with the aftermath of their new relationship.**


	8. Skyfall part 1

**Skyfall: part 1**

**A/N:** **Sorry for the long delay. Sounds like many of you were getting worried that I had forgotten about this one. You all know how it is. Sometimes real life sucks. And sometimes it _REALLY_ sucks. And then sometimes it REALLY sucks and then your 3 month old computer blows another motherboard… AAAAHHHHHHHH! Things are a bit better now and I hope to get back to writing more again. I also found a way to fix my motherboard using a light bulb, tin foil, and a penny – I'm McGuyver! My plan has always been to try something new with this chapter – it comes in 2 parts. It will be the same events, just through different points of view. The next part will be Annie and Eyal's POV and this one is pretty much everyone else.**

This is the end  
Hold your breath and count to ten  
Feel the earth move and then  
Hear my heart burst again

For this is the end  
I've drowned and dreamt this moment  
So overdue I owe them  
Swept away, I'm stolen

Let the sky fall  
When it crumbles  
We will stand tall  
Face it all together

"**Skyfall" – Adele**

Auggie's cane skirted the bottom of the glass double doors exactly where years of experience taught him they would be. He raised his badge to a level between his elbow and shoulder about one arm's length to his right. He heard the familiar quiet beep of the RFID scanner and pushed on the handle of the door to the DPD. He walked in and it was a broad four paces to the short set of stairs. Then it was six 10" steps, eleven more paces along the right hand side of the bullpen, a ninety degree turn to his left, three and a half paces, and then his office door was on his right. He pulled a key fob from his coat pocket and waved it in front of the reader on the wall to the right of the door. The magnetic lock clicked and he was able to twist the door handle and enter his office. He hit the light switch to his left, more to signal his arrival than for any need to have the space illuminated. His left foot found the door stop on the bottom corner of the door and flipped it down, securing it open. It was another two steps to the curved edge of his desk. He let his left hand glide along the edge as he rounded it and found the back of his chair with his right. He settled into it, folded up his cane, and went through his routine of turning on and waking the various pieces of equipment. While he had thoroughly enjoyed the chance to be back in the field, he was glad that they had all returned safe and sound. His desk actually looked pretty good this morning… figuratively, of course. As he was greeted with the whir of hard drives spinning up, he didn't miss the click of high heels on industrial flooring in an oh-so familiar cadence passing his office door.

After a solid thirty-count in his head, he wandered over to her desk. The smell of roast Arabica beans and a light undertone of citrus filled the air. "Good morning Walker."

Annie slid a coffee cup along the desk in front of him. "Right back at you. Coffee's at your ten o'clock."

"You're here rather early. I take it that means you had a quiet, dull weekend." He smiled in her general direction.

"Downright boring actually." He could hear the sarcasm in her voice. "Did you do anything fun and adventurous or just hang around your apartment?"

"I went out for a little while on Saturday, but nothing too exciting." He coolly took a sip of his coffee before they both started laughing. He sobered slightly and asked sincerely, "But you are here early. Something going on?"

He didn't miss the slight hesitation before her answer. "I just have some paperwork to finish up. You know how Joan is."

"You get abducted and she still makes you fill out the paperwork? That is cold."

Auggie was surprised and a little bit disappointed in himself that he didn't detect Eyal's approach until he slid the chair out at the desk next to him.

"Good morning Auggie," The accented voice greeted with sincerity. Then he noted a shift in tone as Eyal added, "Annie." as if his partner was an afterthought.

"Morning Eyal." Annie added far too casually.

Auggie recognized the change immediately. The tension between his friends that was always nearly palpable had evaporated. They were trying far too hard to sound normal. There was only one reason, one situation, that explained the sudden change.

"Holy crap!" Auggie announced a little too loudly and instantly dropped his voice before continuing. "You two slept together!"

He heard Eyal's chair shift suddenly and Annie made a sound that he suspected involved aspirating her coffee. It was all the confirmation he needed.

They both started simultaneously beseeching him in hushed tones. Auggie knew that there were actual words within the garbled gibberish assaulting his ears, but he couldn't process it. His heart had given his brain a ten second head start this morning. His analytical mind had delighted on how quickly he was able to discern the underlying cause of his friends' odd behavior. But now that realization echoed through him. Annie and Eyal were together now. She had chosen Eyal. Not him. This wasn't exactly a surprise. The foundation had been laid months ago when they had returned from Russia, and the inevitability of it had only grown with each passing day since he had joined the DPD. He may have suspected that this day was coming for some time, but that didn't stop his chest from feeling like a hollow empty place that had suddenly begun to collapse in on itself. He was in that alley in Tikrit all over again.

He was sure he didn't know what question or plea he was responding to, and he didn't even realize that he was speaking until the sentence had nearly finished leaving his mouth, but Auggie heard his voice calmly and quietly placating the nervous pair. "Don't worry. Your secret's safe with me." He took a deep breath and silently accepted their thanks before he turned back toward his office and added with a smile, "I'm happy for you, but I should let you two get back to your attempting to look inconspicuous. It still needs a little work." As he walked away, he hoped the comment would leave Annie self-conscious enough that she wouldn't analyze him and see the hurt that he wasn't sure he could hide.

Once he was in his office, he pulled his headphones out of their drawer and put them on. He let his fingers scroll along the keyboard and debated turning on some music, but realized that any album he had on this computer would only remind him of her even more, so he let the silence engulf him. If anyone looked into his office, it would have appeared as if he was hard at work. In reality, he let his body go through the motions, as he let his mind privately grieve for the loss of a relationship and a woman that he realized had never really even been his.

Perhaps it was the universe granting him one small conciliatory favor, but he was grateful that only a few trivial questions and requests dared to interrupt his somber reflections that morning before he was summoned to Joan's office just after lunch time.

…..

Arthur expected to be stuck late at the office that evening, so he and Joan had driven in separately. However, they still arrived at the same time and walked in together. After having to sit at home and wait while Joan ran the mission in Haiti, Arthur found himself quite happy that Joan was now typically desk-bound. He was almost hesitant to even let her out of his sight. He had his suspicions that, despite the complete success of the rescue mission, his wife had probably been in far more danger than she let on in her official op reports or the unofficial debriefing he subjected her to once they were home. He had no idea how he had survived the stress and worry about his wife when they had been field operatives on a regular basis. He was well aware of how the world worked. Things between him and Joan had been going great, the best he could remember in fact. That made it almost an open invitation for something catastrophic to happen.

In a rare show of affection, absolutely inspired by his recent concern for her safety, he not only walked through the security check points with his wife, but accompanied her all the way to her office. He stood in the doorway and apologized, "I know it's not likely that I'll be home for dinner tonight, but maybe we could grab a quick lunch together if our schedules allow?"

"I'd like that. Give me a call when it looks like you might be able to slip out for a few minutes." She smiled at him.

Then he nodded, returned the smile, and left for the seventh floor.

As he walked out through the bullpen, he couldn't help but notice Walker and Lavin sitting at their desks. They were working on paperwork and trying very hard to pretend that they hadn't just been surveilling his interactions with his wife with unnecessary interest. He always tried to remain impartial to the operatives working under his chain of command. He put them in dangerous situations, and any undue attachments would only serve to jeopardize his ability to fully utilize them as the assets that they are. That being said, this one particular pair of operatives was starting to grow on him. The shear amount of paperwork they alone had caused him in the last year had probably taken years off of his life, yet their unpredictable antics had also, indisputably, helped bring him and his wife back to the near honeymoon-like status they were now enjoying. They had also accomplished some pretty remarkable things for the agency. And while he would never admit it, seeing them together did ever so slightly remind him of the way he and Joan used to be.

Nearly all of the DPD staff had arrived by this time and were stopping to welcome Annie back and congratulate her and Eyal on the successful execution of the rescue mission they had all helped with over the weekend. He didn't miss the glances they would exchange after the well-wishers had moved on. He hadn't been the one to directly supervise them before, so he wasn't sure if what he was seeing was a new development or if maybe they were always this indiscreet. Then again, calling their sidelong smiles "indiscreet" may not be entirely fair. You didn't become the Director of Clandestine Services because you were a mediocre spy, and he also was the one person in the building that probably had the best first-hand knowledge of exactly what a blossoming relationship between partnered covert operatives actually looked like. Either way, he knew that meant there was something he was going to have to do when he got to his office.

Arthur walked down the seventh floor hallway and into the suite that housed his office. He smiled a greeting at Midge and swiped his badge to open his office door. She brought him his usual cup of coffee as he went through the normal morning routine of booting up his computer and going over his daily schedule. Before she had walked back to her desk outside his door, he asked his assistant, "Could you have HR send up the file of intake paperwork on Eyal Lavin?"

"Right away, Director." Midge replied, unable to fully cover the slight concern over the strange request.

About twenty minutes later, a sealed manila file folder was placed on Arthur's desk.

"Thanks Midge." He smiled at her as she warily returned to her desk.

Once he was alone again in his office, Arthur broke the envelope's seal, dumped the contents onto his desk, and rifled quickly through the stack of papers. There had been portions of Eyal's employment negotiations that no one but the ex-Mossad agent and himself had been privy to. A grin crept across his face as he came to the particular piece of paper he was looking for. Not even Joan or his new partner had been made aware of the contents and implications of the form in his hand that had been insisted upon as a prerequisite for Eyal's admission to the agency. He had a feeling that he would be needing it soon, and safely tucked the paper into a locked top drawer of his desk before returning the remainder of the paperwork to the folder placing it on the corner of his desk to be sent back to the human resources vault.

Then he got on the phone with some old buddies of his at the State Department and started the ball rolling for the apprehension of the agent that had hacked into their computer network and abetted in the abduction and attempted murder of active CIA operatives. It was going to be a long day.

…..

Joan was having trouble completely wiping a persistent grin from her face this morning. It had been invigorating to get back out into the field again, and her rescue plan had gone perfectly. On top of that, she realized that marital bliss seemed to suit her. She was almost afraid to admit it, for fear of the inevitable other shoe dropping, but she was in a great mood. She'd had only a few quick meetings and status updates that morning. The uncharacteristic smile that she couldn't seem to shake seemed to unnerve her subordinates. That simply made it that much funnier and more difficult to return to her normal dour countenance.

Morale in the DPD seemed to be as good as she ever remembered it being that morning. After Jai's death, even though he had technically left the DPD at that time, the whole department had really needed to put one in the win column. Annie's successful rescue had given them all a renewed sense of accomplishment and enthusiasm. Joan knew that these sentiments didn't last forever in a job like this, but she wanted to ride the wave for as long as she could.

It was late that morning when Joan hung up the phone with Arthur and Annie approached her open door and knocked tentatively on the door frame to get her attention. She had a piece of paper in hand and seemed unnecessarily nervous. Joan suspected that she knew which form she was about to be handed. She had noticed the operatives of the day sitting quietly and working on paperwork all morning. Something between them was different, though she couldn't quite put a finger on it without doing more than stealing an occasional glance through her office window. Lending credence to her burgeoning theory of what was going on between the partners was the conspicuous absence of the third member of the diabolical trio. Since Joan had arrived that morning, Auggie had remained sequestered in his office and quietly working by himself.

"Annie, come in. Have a seat." She smiled at her wary operative and gestured to the seat across the desk from her.

Annie tentatively sat down and seemed to be summoning her courage. "Joan, there is something that I need to tell you. Well, not you personally. Really it's something that I need to inform the Agency about. Officially."

"Annie," Joan coaxed, "just spit it out."

"It's me and Eyal. Or Eyal and I. I… We… It's that…"

Joan couldn't fully hide the smirk as she interrupted Annie's stuttering by pointing at the form in her hand and then gesticulating for her to hand it over.

Annie realized that her words had failed her and stopped attempting to speak. She simply placed the form on the desk and slid it over to Joan.

The bold title printed across the top of the form clearly read **Application for Close and Continuing Contact**. Without hesitation Joan quickly signed at the bottom of the form and broadly smiled at her nervous subordinate. "I'll get this going up the chain as quickly as possible. I doubt there will be any problems. I assume I'll be receiving another matching form later today?"

"He said he's got it covered, so I assume that's a yes." Annie attempted to look less than terrified. "So this isn't going to affect our working together? Eyal and I will still be partners?"

"You two do excellent work together. As long as this development does not change your results in the field I see no reason to split you up."

With that reassurance, an overwhelming smile finally made its way across Annie's face. She stood up from her chair and promised, "We won't let you down. Nothing's going to change."

Joan just smiled back, though deep down she found herself wanting to give the young woman a hug. "Trust me, _everything_ is about to change. But if you are careful and honest, it will all be for the better." She could tell that Annie understood the advice for what it was. "You should go get some lunch. I've just gotten word that there is an operation coming down for you two from the higher ups. We'll meet at one o'clock to discuss it after I get the details."

"Ok." Annie agreed excitedly and turned to leave the office.

"Oh, and Annie?" Joan added before she was out the door. "Congratulations."

"Thank you." The younger blonde operative smiled and ducked out the door.

Joan straightened up the last few things on her desk and then left for Arthur's office. He had called earlier to say that he had a mission for Annie and Eyal and that they could discuss it over lunch. He had sent an assistant out to pick up some pasta from this little Italian restaurant nearby that they both liked.

The joy she felt for her two newly committed operatives dimmed slightly as she passed Auggie's office. It was no secret that he also had feelings for Annie and that their close friendship had been unrivaled before Eyal's appearance. They had all become friends and she knew that all of the three involved in this little office romance triangle were the type to want nothing more than for their friends to be happy. Annie and Eyal would undoubtedly be tactful and sensitive towards Auggie, and he would be supportive as long as it was what made them happy. Still, she knew that he had to be hurting right now.

She stopped and stuck her head into the office. "Auggie?" She waited until he looked up from his computer towards her general direction and peeled off his headphones. "There's going to be a mission briefing at one in the conference room. I'll need you there."

"Will do." He attempted to sound normal as he checked his watch to figure out what the current time was. He had obviously been lost in thought for a while.

She didn't want to say too much, but she wanted the young man to know that he had support in what was certainly a difficult time for him. Also, if she was about to send Annie and Eyal out into the field for something coming down from as high up as Arthur made this mission sound, she needed their handler's head to be in the game. Attempting to convey knowing and compassion without sounding pitying she quietly asked, "Is there anything you need right now?"

He took a deep sigh before replying thoughtfully, "I'm ok. I mean I will be ok. Having a mission to focus on will help."

"Alright then. I'll see you at one."

…..

Eric Barber was just getting ready to go grab a quick lunch when he saw Joan enter Auggie's office briefly. He'd seen Annie head out a few minutes earlier and wondered why neither Auggie nor her partner had gone with her as usual. Once Joan was out of sight he made his way over to the head analyst's personal bat cave and stuck his head in.

"Hey man, what's up? Saw you didn't go to lunch with Annie, then Campbell's all poking around. You ok? Wanna go grab a bite and a brew?"

"Not today Barber. I've got some stuff I need to work on." Auggie tried to decline politely.

"Come on man. I know you got to go out in the field this weekend. Like seriously in the field. You gotta tell me about it." Eric encouraged.

"Despite the fact that the details of this mission are extremely classified," Auggie sighed to compose himself, "I really can't go out right now. I've got a ton of stuff I need to get done before a briefing at one."

Realizing that he wasn't going to win, Eric relented. "Ok. Some other time."

"Yeah, maybe later this week we'll go get a beer."

He wasn't sure if Auggie was being sincere or just trying to brush him off. "Cool. 'Cause I never actually get out into the field and one of us analysts getting to help in a successful rescue mission in Haiti… that's just pretty cool and I was hoping I could live vicariously, ya know. We'll catch up some other time."

With that Eric turned to head over to the cafeteria. He saw Stu just as he was leaving the DPD. "Hey man, wanna go grab some lunch?"

…

Auggie felt a little bad about brushing Barber off. He didn't have anything against the guy, and he even kind of liked him as far as his analyst colleagues went. However, today he just wasn't in the mood. Why couldn't everyone tell that he just wanted to be left alone today?

A voice from his doorway announced, "Hey Auggie."

He cut it off with an abrupt and agitated "What?"

"I was just going to ask if I could buy you lunch and we could talk about this morning. But since that's your reaction, now I'm going to insist."

Auggie now easily recognized Eyal's friendly and concerned voice and deflated a bit. He was being an ass.

"Sorry. Barber's been bugging me for gory details about Haiti. I thought you were him coming back for another try at getting me to give it up."

"Well, I'm not. And I'm still going to drag you out of here to talk and eat."

"If I still say no?" Auggie challenged lightheartedly.

"That's where the 'dragging' part comes in."

"I'd like to see you try." He smiled

Eyal stared silently at him for a moment while he let his statement sink in.

Auggie smiled when he finally got the reason for Eyal's pause. "Ok. I guess I wouldn't actually 'see' you try. Congratulations. You've beaten me at my own game. Now let's get out of here or we'll never be back in time for Joan's briefing."

He grabbed his cane and easily found Eyal in the doorway with an elbow extended. Auggie took it and let the taller man lead him through the maze of corridors. Eyal drove and they were at Allen's in less than ten minutes. Eyal picked one of their usual tables and led Auggie to a chair. He pulled it out slightly so that the back of it hit Auggie's hand and he could tell where it was.

"Holding my arm, pulling out my chair for me… you better be careful or people are going to start to think that we're a couple."

"We are a pair of well dressed, exceptionally handsome men. I can see how they could make that mistake." Eyal laughed.

Auggie smiled back and tried to maintain some levity as he continued. "Speaking of couples and the giant elephant in the room… So… You and Annie…"

"This morning was not the way we wanted you to find out. We both feel horrible about that."

"So there's a 'we' now?" Auggie hadn't meant to say that out loud and realized how petty it sounded. "I didn't really mean that, not that way."

"It's ok." Eyal was determined to be nothing but understanding. "These roles could have very easily been reversed, and I have no intention of making light of your feelings."

"You're both my friends, and I really want you both to be happy. It's just a little raw right now. Deep down I am happy for you. There is some consolation in knowing that if it's not me, at least it's you. Could you imagine if it had been some other guy?"

"I can imagine what we would have teamed up to do to him." Eyal grinned wickedly.

Auggie sensed the smirk and couldn't help but smile back.

Just then their waitress appeared and they placed their orders. Once she walked away, Auggie added, "Since you bring up unspeakable acts of torture… You do understand that if you hurt her I will kill you."

"I believe that has always been a fairly mutual understanding." Eyal agreed.

"I'm serious. This isn't some over-protective big brother crap. I know we're both ex-special forces, so you're thinking it might have been an even match but that now you're safe since I can't see. But you hurt her and I have no problem fighting dirty. I'll find you in your sleep when it's not a fair fight."

"If I hurt her, I would expect nothing less."

"Just so we're clear." Auggie extended a hand across the table.

"Crystal." Eyal took it and firmly shook on it.

They sat silently for a while until their sandwiches were delivered. In between bites Eyal added, "If I had known it was going to happen, I would have spoken to you first, out of respect."

"It's not exactly out of the blue." Auggie snarked back.

"I was planning to leave." Eyal admitted

"What?" Auggie nearly choked on a french fry.

"I drove her home Saturday night to tell her that I was leaving, to push her away."

"Why on Earth were you planning to leave?"

"Ansari had targeted her to get to me. I already knew that, but he felt the need to remind me of that fact right before I…" Eyal glanced to the booths on either side of theirs to ensure that no one was listening before continuing, "…neutralized him."

"But he was crazy. It wasn't your fault."

"But if she had been injured or killed because of her connection to me, I could not live with myself. I thought that the best way to keep her safe was to no longer be a part of her life."

"I'm sure that went over well."

"About as well as you are imagining." Eyal chuckled.

"But apparently she eventually changed your mind."

"She used the 'think of all the times we've saved each other' card."

"Ouch. There's no coming back from that one." Auggie laughed.

"There really was not."

They were both now quite at ease and quickly finished their food. Eyal tossed a few bills onto the table and they got up and headed back to his car.

As they were driving back to Langley, Auggie asked, "So you guys spent the whole rest of the weekend together once we got back?"

"Almost entirely." Eyal answered, slightly nervous about where this line of questioning was going.

"Just tell me one thing." Auggie requested.

"I feel that I owe you at least that. Ask away." Eyal was still uncomfortable about the upcoming topic.

"Are there any flat surfaces left in either of your apartments that have not been defiled to the point that I will feel uncomfortable sitting there the next time we hang out?" Auggie smiled wickedly.

Eyal laughed out loud. If they could all somewhat make light of the situation, then just maybe their friendships would still manage to remain intact. "Of course. There's the…" he paused. "Nope. Not a one." They both laughed out loud.

"You are one lucky man."

"Don't I know it." They were quiet again for a few minutes before Eyal spoke up. "You just let me know when you feel ready to get back on the proverbial horse. I've made some very interesting friends here in DC over the past few years. I can think of a few lovely women that would be more than happy to make your acquaintance."

"Thanks, but I don't really need your help setting me up with your cast offs." Auggie knew it had been a friendly offer, but sloppy seconds weren't exactly what he considered appealing.

"I'm not talking about ex-girlfriends. These are people I've met while working – assets, allies, acquaintances I've made to help maintain my cover."

"Yeah… women you've slept with." Auggie summarized.

"Why does everybody think I sleep with every woman I work with?" Eyal huffed.

"Because we've met you." Auggie smiled at him dryly.

"Everyone's a badkhn. Eize Zevel. That is m'guchakh." Eyal grumbled, reverting to his native tongue partially, as they pulled into Langley's parking lot.

…..

Joan approached his office just as he cut off the video conference with the State Department's Director of Internal Security. Arthur rolled his head from one shoulder to the other, then dragged his palms down his face in an attempt to physically dislodge the stress that all this inter-agency bureaucracy was causing. State had found their mole, but were hesitant to proceed, for fear of how this would look in the public light. Arthur, on the other hand, was happy to help draw up the treason charges himself. The fact that State couldn't keep their own house in order was their problem, and normally he would have been happy to let them deal with it however they deemed appropriate. That was right up until the moment it put his people in jeopardy. And compounding the matter was that it hadn't been just any of his people, it had been a very specific group of people. People that he cared dearly about. Arthur wanted blood. If he had his way, Tuesday morning over at the Harry S. Truman Building would have looked like a goddamn Game of Thrones episode. Of course, the heads would have only been rolling in the figurative sense. However, that mental image brought a small smile to his face.

"What have you suddenly found so humorous?" Joan asked as she sat down across the desk from her husband.

"Just imagining how I would deal with the State mole."

"Should I be worried that you are becoming sadistic?" Joan smiled at him.

"This new assignment I'm passing down to you for Walker and Lavin would probably be a much better focus for your worry."

They were momentarily interrupted by a tentative knock at the door.

"Enter." Arthur bellowed, and an intern darted in nervously with two white plastic bags of take out. "Thanks Sam." He reached out and accepted the bags. The scared intern then darted from the room without a word.

"You do realize that his name's not Sam, right?" Joan looked quizzically at her husband.

"What do you mean? That's Sam. He's been interning with the office since the Summer."

"His name is Scott."

"How would you know that?"

"He's been dating Laura, my satellite data analyst since September. He probably spends more time in the DPD than he does up here."

"Then that's probably why I got his name wrong." Arthur tried to cover.

Joan just smiled back at him. "He probably spends more time in the DPD because we actually took the time to get to know his name." Some things about her husband would never change. "And speaking of dating in the DPD…"

"Is this going where I think it's going?" Arthur asked knowingly.

"If you are thinking of Annie and Eyal, then yes, it's going exactly where you think it's going. Annie submitted a C and C this morning. I expect one from Eyal by the end of the day."

"That's not going to happen." Arthur corrected.

"Oh, I'm pretty sure it's already happened." Joan smirked.

"No, I mean that Eyal will not be submitting a Close and Continuing to you."

"Weren't you the one threatening to break them apart because of their feelings for each other just late last week?" Joan was starting to get defensive.

"I suppose that it is finally time that I read you in on some of the conditions of Eyal's employment here at the CIA." He unlocked the top drawer of his desk and fished out the piece of paper he had stashed there earlier that morning.

Joan was looking furious. "What do you mean 'conditions'?"

"There were stipulations discussed only between myself and Eyal that had to be met before his addition to the Agency. One in particular that pertained to this exact scenario."

"'Stipulations'! What more does this man have to do? He's one of the best operatives we have ever had, and you're making him jump through hoops? You, of all people are going to let some bureaucratic bullshit come between these two? You know exactly what these two have been through for each other. It's the same things we went through." Joan had pushed her chair back and jumped to her feet. Arthur had remained seated, and she loomed over the desk in an attempt to intimidate him.

All Arthur could do was chuckle.

"You find this funny?" Joan ground her teeth. "If you are really going to pull this, you are not the man I married."

Still smiling, Arthur tapped a finger on the paper he had removed from the drawer, placed on the desk, and slid toward Joan during her tirade. She looked down at it, and he fully enjoyed the gambit of emotions that played across her face as she recognized it. It was a fully completed, accepted, signed, and notarized Close and Continuing Contact form submitted by one Eyal Lavin on December 18, 2012.

"But…" Joan was confused.

"It wasn't the Agency's stipulation, it was his. He was only willing to join the CIA on the condition that, should the opportunity arise, he would not be prevented from pursuing a relationship with Annie. I had to personally push this one up the chain for approval before he would sign the paperwork."

Joan's cheeks reddened slightly in embarrassment, but she continued matter-of-factly, "So I suppose I should stop overreacting and eat my lunch while you read me in on this new op." She sat back down in her chair quietly.

"You could do that, but you get so cute when you're overreacting." Arthur smiled and took a bite of his fettuccine.

"So, it's safe to assume that Annie's C and C won't meet any resistance as it goes up the chain?"

"None whatsoever." Arthur answered with his mouth still full.

"So tell me about this op."

"Just one thing we need to clear up first." Arthur insisted. On Joan's look of acceptance he continued, "His name really isn't Sam?"

…..

"Ji Hoon Bhak is our holy grail." Joan lectured to the small group in the conference room. "He is a North Korean scientist that has worked extensively in their nuclear armament facilities and has become disillusioned in the leadership of his country. He wants out, and we are going to help get him here to America."

"You're sending us into North Korea?" Even Eyal seemed uneasy about the prospect.

"No." Joan replied. "The good news is that the DCS happened to have an exfil specialist on the ground nearby at the time that Bhak reached out, and most of the heavy lifting has already been done for you. He has crossed the border out of North Korea already. We just need you to finish bringing him the last few legs of the trip here."

"I'm a little worried." Auggie spoke up. "Because any time someone starts off with 'the good news is…' that means there's going to be bad news. What's worse than North Korea?"

"The bad news is that while North Korea may currently be one of the single least hospitable places on the globe for American CIA operatives in general right now, we are going to have to send you two into the country that is probably still the single least hospitable for you two personally right now. The only place that our operative was able to get Bhak across the border was in Josan-ri."

"That's the northeastern corner of the country." Annie pointed out, a small amount of fear apparently mounting in her voice.

"You are correct. The only available exit was into Khasan." Joan continued.

"They're in Russia?" Eyal exclaimed. "I have a strict limit of one suicide mission to rescue someone out of Russia every six months. This exceeds that limit."

At the same time Annie pleaded, "Do you have any idea how hard it was for us to get out of Russia last time? We barely made it!"

Auggie added to the commotion, "You can't send them back there. Four months ago they were the two most hunted people in the country. They show up there together and they're as good as dead."

"We are well aware of the risks, but you seem to fail to appreciate the importance of this asset. We have the opportunity here to gain information to defuse the current single greatest threat to world security, and we are not about to let this opportunity slip through our fingers. This mission falls to you because you have the experience and you are the best we've got. Do you want me to walk upstairs and tell the Director of Clandestine Services that you two are now too afraid to take an op?"

Joan left the threat only thinly veiled, and it filled the silence between them. This was their chance to prove that their relationship would not negatively impact their work.

Annie was the first to speak. She determinedly asked, "What's the plan?"

Eyal quit his storming around the conference room and took a seat next to her, suddenly all ears.

Auggie had remained seated the entire time, but his body language now softened.

Joan began, "First. Let me assure you, if everything goes as planned you will never even be within twenty-five hundred miles of Moscow. The threat of your identities being discovered if we operate only around the eastern coast is negligible."

"But not non-existant." Auggie mumbled under his breath.

Joan chose to ignore the blind man. He had enough going on today.

"The initial plan had been for the exfil specialist to get the asset on a plane in Vladivostok. They would fly into Tokyo and then back to the US on commercial flights with a set of clean passports we provided."

"I take it things did not go as planned." Eyal snarked.

"We underestimated the amount of North Korean interference that Russia would allow within their borders. North Korea's State Security Department tracked our people and sent recovery teams of their secret police into Russia after them. We had not predicted that Russia would allow this so freely." Joan explained.

"Do we have any indication why Russia is so willing to play ball with the North Koreans?" Annie asked.

"Some information from Bhak revealed that they are planning a nuclear test in the very near future." Joan answered, and everyone took a moment to let the gravity of that sink in.

"If Russia knows anything about this, of course they're going to be accommodating." Annie surmised. "Harboring a defector could turn a nuclear test into target practice on their soil. No wonder they're willing to cooperate."

"That has precisely been our problem." Joan continued. "Teams were already in place at Vladivostok to apprehend Bhak and our operative, so they were forced to go to ground."

"How well are they hidden?" Eyal sounded concerned. "I was under the impression just a few months ago that most of you assets on the ground and safe-houses in the country had been burned to protect the double agent Annie went after."

"They were." Joan answered. "We have had only slight success rebuilding our network there, but we have every confidence in the operative that is with Bhak right now to keep him safe. It is someone with exceptional skills in making and keeping people disappeared."

Auggie couldn't help the feeling of bile rising in his gut. Joan was referring to this mysterious operative on the ground far too much, and she seemed to place a level of trust in his abilities that she typically reserved for only people she had worked closely with. He had a suspicion, but was not about to voice it to the room. If Joan was intent on keeping a secret, so could he. "So what's our plan?" Auggie asked.

Joan pulled up a map of eastern Russia on the screen at the front of the conference room. "You will fly commercially into Vladivostok. From there you will make your way to the mountain village of Arsenyev, where Bhak is being kept under cover. You will rendezvous with our operative and travel north to the commercial airfield associated with Khabarovsk Novy Airport. There a cargo plane will be waiting to bring you to Anchorage. Once you are on American soil, we will have a jet meet you and return you here to DC."

"It's about four hundred miles from Arsenyev to Khabarovsk, and M60 is the only major road spanning that section of the country. We'll be sitting ducks." Eyal protested.

"We are trusting you to assess the situation on the ground and adjust accordingly. Isn't that what you two are the best at?" Joan knew she could goad Eyal's ego. She saw the slight change in demeanor that she knew indicated that he had accepted the challenge. "Go home, pack, and prepare. You leave in two hours for LAX, then onto Seoul for your connection to Vladivostok."

With that, they were dismissed. Annie and Eyal promptly gathered their things and left the DPD. Joan couldn't help but notice Auggie remaining sequestered in his office. She walked over and entered without knocking.

"When I said to go home for the night, I meant you too."

"But I'm not going anywhere." Auggie questioned.

"No, but this is going to be a long mission with a great deal of risk the entire time. You are their handler. If this goes sideways we are going to be depending on you heavily. I need you at your best at any given moment. Go home, sort things out in your head, and get some rest while you can." Joan encouraged.

"Fine. But one question first."

Joan stepped fully into the office and closed the door behind her.

Auggie continued. "This operative on the ground with Bhak right now, it's someone we know. Isn't it?"

"Yes." Joan answered succinctly. "And by your inflection, I gather that you already have an idea who it is."

"And you didn't think you needed to tell Annie about this?"

"She'll find out soon enough." Joan paused before continuing in a friendly voice, "Now get out of here before I have security drag you out."

…..

Auggie had decided to spend the night in, drink a beer, or five, and listen to a college hoops game on TV before passing out around nine pm. He realized that the brooding recluse thing wasn't very becoming, but Joan had been right. It was a chance to relax, get his head on straight, and come to terms with the way things were going to be for the foreseeable future. After about three beers he felt he was doing a pretty good job at it. After five, he could barely remember why he was supposed to be upset in the first place.

That made it all the more disturbing when his phone began incessantly ringing at 10:17 pm. "Hello?" He groggily answered without checking the caller ID first.

"Auggie?" He vaguely recognized the female voice on the other end of the line as Joan. That startled him into a slightly more sober state.

"Get cleaned up, pull yourself together, and get to the DPD as quickly as possible." She barked the orders at him.

"What's wrong?" He couldn't imagine how there could already be a problem with the mission. Annie and Eyal's flight out of LAX had only lifted off about an hour ago.

"North Korea just tested a nuclear weapon."

Auggie felt the floor underneath him give out. The implications of Joan's statement sobered him immediately. North Korea had just become the single most volatile player in geopolitics, and his two best friends were about to land in the thick of it. "I'll be there as soon as I can." It was all he could say to Joan before hanging up and dialing his car service.

He grabbed a quick shower to wash off the essence of desperation and regret that he had been wallowing in that evening, and got ready to go. Thirty minutes later he was striding through the doors of the DPD, game face in place, and all eyes turning to him. He walked straight to Joan's office. He could hear her voice, smell Arthur's cologne, and by the pace of the shuffling sounds, he assumed there were a few more people in the office. "What do we know?"

"Thank you" Auggie heard Joan address and dismiss the other people that had been in the room. When he heard the door close behind them she addressed him. "Chinese and US Geologic Surveys and nuclear watch groups in the area all reported a 4.9 magnitude seismic disturbance centered 15 mile east-northeast of Sungjibaegam, North Korea and roughly one kilometer deep within the ground at approximately 9:57 Eastern Standard Time."

"Was this in retaliation for Bhak?" Auggie asked. Had the actions of his team just elevated the global nuclear threat level?

Arthur answered. "We think this was the previously planned test he spoke of. Though his defection may have caused them to expedite their time table."

"This has gotten way too big. We need to get Annie and Eyal out of there before their presence escalates things even worse." Auggie pleaded.

Arthur replied, "We need them there now more than ever. Ji Hoon Bhak is the single best weapon we have against North Korea. Getting him safely stateside is now the CIA's number one priority."

"Then what reinforcements are we sending? Seal Team Four is currently on standby and we could get them there within the day." Auggie began running tactical scenarios in his head.

"Auggie," This time it was Joan addressing him. "We can't send anyone else in. If anyone finds us sending US forces into the area, the climate could destabilize from tense to explosive. This has to remain a small covert extraction scenario."

"'A small covert extraction scenario'?" Auggie echoed sarcastically. "They set off a nuclear weapon just over a hundred miles from where we are sending Annie and Eyal. We're sending Russia's recently two most wanted fugitives back to, guess where, Russia! No one has told Annie and her new boyfriend that the operative they are going to be relying on is her ex-boyfriend, Ben freaking Mercer, and if anything goes wrong with this mission it could cause an international incident that could spark an atomic World War Three. Am I the only one that sees the problem with this?" Auggie raged.

Arthur addressed him in a calm but stern tone. "The risks of continuing this mission have been weighed against the potential benefit of the intel that Bhak can provide us, and the decision has come down from higher up that we are to proceed with the exfiltration scenario."

"Argo fuck yourself…" Auggie grumbled the apropos movie quote under his breath.

"What was that?" Arthur questioned.

"Nothing. I'm going to go start working on back up plans. God knows we're going to need them." Then he stormed out of the office and toward his own.

…..

It was 10:10 the next morning when Auggie's office phone rang, waking him from an unintended nap at his desk. Annie's frightened voice on the other end of the line brought him immediately to full wakefulness.

"Auggie, what's going on? We just landed in Seoul, and it's panic here in the airport."

"Last night, earlier in the day your time, North Korea tested a nuclear weapon with an underground detonation." Auggie heard Annie relay the news to Eyal, then he could hear arguing before Eyal's voice returned on the line.

"I assume we are now scheduled on an immediate return flight?"

"Your orders, despite my objections, are to continue with the mission as planned."

"You have got to be kidding me." Eyal vented then angrily whispered into the phone, "Do they have any idea what will happen if we are caught?"

"This is coming from far further up the chain than Arthur. Getting Bhak safely to the US is the Agency's top priority. You will have whatever resources you need."

"Military back-up would be nice." Eyal grumbled.

"I already tried that, but the feeling is that mobilizing troops will escalate the tensions in the region. Our leaders are insisting that the mission remain covert."

Auggie heard some Hebrew profanity in the background before Annie's voice returned to the phone. "Have we heard from the operative on the ground? Are he and Bhak still alright?"

"No word from him, but we aren't expecting any. They are hunkered down and maintaining radio silence until your rendezvous."

"I just hope this operative knows what he's doing. With so much riding on this, we don't have any room for surprises."

Auggie gulped a little at her statement, but was pretty sure he'd hidden the instinctual response. "Well, if my time calculations are correct, you two have a plane to catch."

"We should get going. We'll check in when we've made contact."

"And Annie, be careful. Both of you." With that, Auggie hung up.

Auggie knew it would be hours again before he heard from them, but the time still dragged along more slowly than he could ever remember. It was six hours before the encrypted text message reached his cell phone. It read:

Made rendezvous. Need to talk about definition of "no surprises" when we  
get back :/ Roads highly monitored. Will travel through woods by ATV.  
Expect trip to take 2 days. Cell reception crappy. Not sure when next check in.

Auggie couldn't help but smile at the embedded emoticon as he replied:

Take ur time. B safe. Call if u need nething.

It would normally be quite a while before she would forgive him for keeping Joan's secret, but with everything else going on, he might just be able to skate on this one little trespass.

Auggie reported in to Joan and packed up for the night. It could be days before he heard from Annie and Eyal again, and Joan hadn't been wrong when she said that they would be depending on him. This would be his best chance during this mission to get some actual sleep, and after spending the night at the office, he wasn't about to pass it up.

The remainder of Tuesday night and all of Wednesday passed without any further word from Annie and Eyal. Auggie returned from lunch on Thursday and for the millionth time since they had left, calculated the sixteen hour time difference between Washington DC and Eastern Russia. It was just past one thirty pm his time, making it just past five thirty Friday morning Annie's time. Hopefully they were near their destination and would be getting up and strolling into the commercial airfield in the next couple of hours. The cargo plane that had dropped off a giant load of freshly processed opilio crab from Alaska could justifiably stay at the air field for about six hours, eight if they stretched their luck, before becoming suspicious. That gave the team about four hours to make it to the airstrip before they would have to wait another day for a new transport plane.

Just then Auggie's cell signaled an incoming call from Annie's encrypted cell. Right on time. He let out a breath he hadn't realized that he had been holding and answered, "Walker, good to hear from you."

"Hey, Auggie, right?" A voice that didn't instantly register filled Auggie's ears. "Good to know you've still got our girl's back after all these years."

Auggie then vaguely recollected the voice of Ben Mercer. The statement hadn't held any particularly inappropriate sentiment, but Auggie somehow didn't think Eyal would stand for Ben referring to Annie as 'their' girl. Something wasn't right.

"Speaking of which…" Auggie proceeded warily. "What do you need Ben?"

"If you guys have a cavalry, or a backup plan, this might be a good time for it."

That was exactly what Auggie hadn't wanted to hear. "Is everyone alright?"

"The asset is fine. Annie and I are a little beat up, but none-the worse for wear. Your, uh, foreign exchange student though… he could be a lot better. We're also out of transportation options."

"Where are you?" Auggie quickly began playing scenarios in his head.

"We're holed up in a little shit hole of a cabin about two mile north of a little farming town called Poletnoye. I had to hike in to get a signal. I was going to also try to procure some transport, but the only thing I see in this town are a couple oxen and I don't think we'll be able to make a clean get away on 'em."

Auggie typed rapid-fire on his keyboard. "So you're only about fifty miles from the air strip." He was a little relived. If he could get a vehicle to them they could still make today's transport.

"Fifty miles or five hundred, it doesn't make a difference. Your guy's not gonna make it fifty feet on his own."

"What happened to Eyal?" Auggie asked trying to hide the panic in his voice.

"We had to go into a town for gas yesterday. We thought we got in and out cleanly, but somebody must have spotted us. Just before nightfall we had a swarm of secret police on our tail. There was a small scuffle with a couple of their scouts. We all came out of that just fine, but we split up after to throw the main group off our trail. Annie came with me and the asset while Mossad set up a trap to drive them off and confuse them. We doubled back and ditched our quad to hide our track before we were all supposed to meet at this little cabin we'd seen earlier in the day. The temps are getting into the negative teens at night, so we wouldn't have made it out in the open."

"And Eyal?" Auggie prompted, slightly irritated at Ben.

"After it had been dark for a while and he didn't show, Annie started to get worried. It was getting inhospitably cold outside, so she went looking for him. She found him about half a mile from the cabin, beat all to hell. Looks like he took a pretty bad fall or something too and the dirt bike he'd been using was nowhere to be found. She got him back, but he's in rough shape – broken leg, broken ribs, hypothermia, likely some internal bleeding."

"What can I do?" Auggie asked, a familiar cold fear creeping over him.

"Ideally you could arrange some type of helevac for all of us, but since that has about as much chance of happening as us escaping on unicorns…"

"Just say it Ben." Auggie knew what was coming.

"Get me some kind of transportation. I can get the asset to the airstrip."

"And what about Annie and Eyal?"

"I'm sorry, but I have no workable plan for how to get a man that injured out through these conditions. Ideally Annie would come with us, but I don't think she's going to leave him. Once we get the asset out and the heat dies down, we can get a rescue team back to extract her and the body."

"Well I'm sorry too, because that's not acceptable." Auggie began yelling into the phone.

"Hey, this is a crap situation, and I'm just trying to make the best of it. We can still get the asset out safely. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices for the sake of the mission."

So here it was. When it all came down to it, Ben was going to leave her again. Auggie's mind flashed back to a series of unreturned voice mails left just over four months ago.

"_Hey Ben, this is Auggie Anderson from the DPD. A mutual friend of ours is in some trouble, and I think you might be in a position to help. Give me a call if you get this."_

"_Ben, this is Auggie again. Annie needs your help. Please get a hold of me to discuss this."_

"_Ben, it's Auggie… again. Annie needs your help. I don't know who else to turn to. I would do this myself if I could, but I can't. This is life or death. Please call me."_

"_I'm going to beg you one last time to help me, help Annie. Please call me back. There is no one else at the CIA I can ask …"_

_After a week of leaving unreturned messages on Ben's cell, the last line of his final plea had given him an idea. He picked up Annie's personal cell that he had long since retrieved from her house and scrolled through the contact list. He found the name he was looking for and hit the call button. An accented voice picked up on the second ring._

"_Shalom Neshama! To what do I owe the pleasure?"_

"_Eyal Lavin?" Auggie asked tentatively. He could swear that the muffled sounds in the background noise sounded like the man was actively involved in some kind of fist fight._

"_Look, I don't know who this is, but I'm kind of in the middle of something. I'm going to have to call you back." The friendly voice no longer sounded as friendly._

"_Wait. I'm Annie's friend. She's in real trouble. I need your help."_

"_Hold on." The command was followed by the sounds of a few hard hits, a silenced gunshot, and a thud. "Who did you say you are?" The background noise had ceased. _

"_My name is Auggie. I work with Annie Walker. I assume you know what that means."_

"_You're CIA. Auggie…" He pondered the name for a moment. "You're her handler. The one she's always calling to check in with."_

"_That's me."_

"_What's this about Annie being in trouble?"_

"_She was in Russia on an unsanctioned op and has been captured. We believe she is being held in Lefortovo and tortured." He heard the man on the other end of the line's breath hitch. "Because it was unsanctioned…"_

"_Your agency will not do anything for her, correct?" He interrupted._

"_Now you see why I need your help."_

"_You're sure she's at Lefortovo?" Eyal asked._

"_As certain as anyone can be about these kind of things."_

"_I'll see what I can find out. I'll get back to you later today."_

"_So you'll help?" Auggie was stunned._

"_You're talking about a one man rescue team, with little to no agency backing, to break a woman out of one of the most heavily fortified secret prisons in the world, that happens to be located underground in the middle of one of the largest cities on Earth and has never experienced a successful escape before? How could I say no?"_

"_Now I'm starting to understand why Annie likes you."_

"_She said she likes me?" Eyal asked with an overabundance of fake optimism. Some muffled groaning started up again in the background and Eyal quickly added, "I've got to go finish up this… thing that I'm working on. I'll be in touch."_

And there was the difference. Eyal would always make time for Annie. No matter the odds, he would find a way. He would never leave her. Auggie was determined to see that he didn't have to.

Auggie yelled into the phone at his ear. "You listen to me, Ben. Annie and Eyal are not some sacrifice you make in the name of the mission. You get your ass back to that cabin and get them as ready to move out as possible. I am not giving up on my friends, and so help me, if you show up at that airstrip without either of them, I will instruct the pilot to shoot you on sight. Have I made myself clear!"

"Yeah, yeah. Calm down. I'll help any way I can, but I just wanted you to know how not good this situation looks."

"Just have everyone back to that village in two hours." Auggie slammed his finger against the touchscreen to disconnect the call as hard as he could. It was one of those rare times he missed the corded land-line phones from his youth. Slamming the phone into the receiver would have had such a better impact. He took a breath and realized that there was dead silence in the DPD. He didn't need to see to know that everyone was staring at him. He straightened his vest, grabbed his cane, stood up straight, and walked out of his office toward Joan's. Upon entering he closed the door behind him.

"Do we have a problem?" Joan asked, her voice slightly stand-offish.

"Eyal's injured. Ben wants to leave him and Annie behind to get the asset to the airstrip."

"So I heard. As did everyone else in the DPD." Joan quipped.

"He was talking about leaving them behind." Auggie reiterated.

"You give him a better way out and he'll take it. He's not heartless. You just have to remember that all this time he's been working alone. He doesn't even work with a handler. He's not used to having to care about anything but himself and the mission."

"And it should stay that way if you ask me."

"Not everyone in this Agency can work in a team, most of the time we specifically avoid it. You have to remember that before you judge him too harshly. That being said, you are part of a team and it sounds like they need you more than ever right now. What's your plan?"

Auggie took a deep breath to calm him-self and began to describe his idea to Joan.

TBC…

**A/N: Ok… I didn't want to give away the ending, or the next chapter won't be nearly as exciting. Thanks for hanging in there, and I promise it won't take nearly this long to get the next chapter posted.**


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